THE WALL STREET JOURNAL. Monday, November 16, 2020 |A
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Source: Center for Responsive Politics analysis of FEC dataing the program to any new
candidates. The move was in-
tended as an intermediate step
while the administration con-
sidered whether to make an-
other attempt to end the pro-
gram entirely, as the Supreme
Court had allowed it could do.
That memo was the subject
of the latest round of litiga-
tion. The judge, Nicholas G.
Garaufis of the Eastern Dis-
trict of New York, ruled it was
improperly issued because Mr.
Wolf hadn’t been properly ap-
pointed to his acting position.
The ruling is the fifth to find
that Mr. Wolf is serving ille-gally in his acting role, follow-
ing a Government Accountabil-
ity Office report that found Mr.
Wolf and his predecessor, Kevin
McAleenan, both had been im-
properly appointed under fed-
eral law on job vacancies.
Judge Garaufis, who was ap-
pointed by former President
Clinton, said the ruling applies
to anyone who might qualify
for DACA under the 2012 memo
establishing the program, is-
sued by then-Homeland Secu-
rity Secretary Janet Napolitano.
The ruling doesn’t apply to
a small subset of people who
are plaintiffs in other DACAlawsuits.
The ruling doesn’t have the
effect of removing Mr. Wolf
from his role but adds to a
growing set of rulings that
have found that, as a result of
his improper appointment, Mr.
Wolf didn’t have the authority
to issue numerous immigra-
tion and other policies.
A DHS spokesman called
Judge Garaufis an “activist
judge” who substituted his
own policy preferences for the
law. “DHS is exploring its op-
tions to ensure its review of
DACA continues as intended,”
the spokesman said.Donald Trump and his family at a ceremony for a new Trump hotel in Washington, D.C., on Oct. 26, 2016.GARY CAMERON/REUTERSloans and get other economic
and tax benefits.
The Trump Organization
has called the investigations
politically motivated and de-
nied wrongdoing.
—Craig Karmin
contributed to this article.sation. The response we have
seen from survivors has been
gut-wrenching. We are deeply
sorry.”
Accusations of sexual mis-
conduct have swirled around
the Boy Scouts since soon af-
ter the group was founded in
1910, and the organizationdocumented allegations of sex-
ual misconduct for decades in
what it calls its ineligible-vol-
unteer files. There are about
7,800 records in the files, and
they document the individuals
the Boy Scouts has deemed
unfit to be part of the group,
often because of sexual-mis-When President Trump
leaves the White House in Jan-
uary, he will face some of the
deepest financial and legal
challenges in his family busi-
ness empire in decades.
No matter what he focuses
on after the presidency, the
businesses will require his at-
tention. Two New York inves-
tigations will continue after he
leaves office and theTrump
Organization will need to
avert a potential cash crunch
caused by looming debt ma-
turities at the firm’s real-es-
tate holdings. Personal guar-
antees Mr. Trump made on
some of the organization’s
debt add urgency to shoring
up its financial position.
Trump Organization execu-
tives say a key focus will be
growing the brand globally
once Mr. Trump leaves office.
Yet those plans will face hur-
dles. In China—a market long
eyed by Mr. Trump—the presi-
dent has become deeply dis-
trusted after his trade war
damaged U.S.-China relations.
In Europe, some of the Trump
trademarks have been elimi-
nated by legal challenges.
The Trump Organization
might soon slim down. Several
properties are for sale, includ-
ing its Washington hotel and
two skyscrapers in New York
and San Francisco that are part-
owned by the Trump Organiza-
tion. The organization also has
been considering selling its
Seven Springs estate outside of
New York City, The Wall Street
Journal previously reported.
compounded by long-running
legal issues, with New York
probes of Mr. Trump’s busi-
nesses set to continue after he
leaves office. Mr. Trump has
also been contending with an
Internal Revenue Service audit
of his finances.
Manhattan District Attor-
ney Cyrus Vance Jr., a Demo-
crat, has been pursuing yearsof Mr. Trump’s financial re-
cords, and says criminal tax
fraud and falsification of busi-
ness records are among the
laws investigators believe may
have been broken. Another in-
vestigation, by New York
state’s Attorney General Leti-
tia James, also a Democrat, is
examining whether Mr. Trump
inflated asset values to obtainU.S. NEWS
Any sales could help the
family avert a lending crunch.
The Trump Organization has
more than $400 million of
debt due in the next few years
and many lenders have indi-
cated they are wary of doing
business with Mr. Trump. Ad-
ditionally, the pandemic has
hurt business at Trump hotels
and resorts, and the financial
benefits some get from Mr.
Trump being in the White
House could decline.
Trump Organization execu-
tives say its businesses are
healthy. “The Trump Organiza-
tion is an incredible company
with tremendous cash flow.
We have never been stronger,”
the company said.
It is unknown whether Mr.
Trump will want to resume an
active management role. When
elected, he turned over man-
agement of the business to his
sons Eric and Donald Jr. while
keeping ownership. Some
Trump associates predict the
president will return to his of-
fice on the 26th floor of
Trump Tower in New York.
“He won’t be able to help him-
self,” longtime friend and
business partner Phil Ruffin
previously told the Journal.
Others, including former
chief of staff Mick Mulvaney,
expect he could run for presi-
dent again. Mr. Mulvaney said
in recent days he “would abso-
lutely put him on the shortlist
of people likely to run in
2024.”
Since Mr. Trump launched
his run for the presidency in
2015, his businesses have be-
come closely linked with the
GOP. Republican spending atTrump properties has topped
$23 million since 2015, com-
pared with less than $200,
in the five years prior, accord-
ing to an analysis of Federal
Election Commission data by
the nonpartisan Center for Re-
sponsive Politics.
Those revenues will likely
decline, including $37,000 of
monthly rent payments the
Trump campaign has made to
Trump Tower in New York.
The office tower, where the
Trump Organization is based,
has suffered from falling occu-
pancy rates since Mr. Trump
took office, the Journal has re-
ported.
Other properties have fared
better, including the two office
towers in San Francisco and
Manhattan in which Mr.
Trump owns a minority stake
alongside Vornado Realty
Trust. Vornado now says it is
considering selling the build-
ings, known as 555 California
Street and 1290 Avenue of the
Americas, and people involved
say potential deals could in-
clude the Trump Organiza-
tion’s stakes in the properties.
In Washington, the Trump
International Hotel in Wash-
ington has been a favorite
gathering spot for GOP staff-
ers, lobbyists and activists.
The Trump family began ex-
ploring a sale of its rights to
the hotel before the coronavi-
rus hit, and people familiar
with the situation say that
while there has been signifi-
cant interest from possible
buyers, the pandemic has de-
layed any transaction.
Financial challenges facing
the Trump Organization areBYBRIANSPEGELE
ANDCAITLINOSTROFF
Pressing Business
Issues Await Trump
ruptcies that were similarly
rooted in widespread child
abuse, said James Stang, the
lead lawyer for a committee
representing people who said
they were sexually abused in
the Boy Scouts.
“This is the deadline for
men who have been grappling
with their abuse, seeking legal
remedies for their abuse, for
years,” Mr. Stang said.
The Boy Scouts has ac-
knowledged that it failed to
protect its youth members and
apologized to the victims. The
youth group has also said it
continually works to improve
measures to protect children.
“We are devastated by the
number of lives impacted by
past abuse in scouting and
moved by the bravery of those
who came forward,” the Boy
Scouts said. “We intentionally
developed an open, accessible
process to reach survivors and
help them take an essential
step toward receiving compen-conduct allegations.
Attorneys who have been su-
ing the Boy Scouts for years on
behalf of alleged abuse victims
said they had never imagined
such a high number of them
would step forward through
the bankruptcy process.
“We knew the scope was
big,” said Paul Mones, an at-
torney for alleged abuse vic-
tims who helped reveal the in-
eligible-volunteer files in a
landmark 2010 case. “We just
didn’t have any idea the scope
was this big.”
The bankruptcy filing
touched off the first national
campaign encouraging survi-
vors to step forward, fueled by
mass-marketing techniques.
“There’s also been a steady
and increased consciousness
in the country of sexual abuse,
and those things collided,” Mr.
Mones said.
The Boy Scouts sought chap-
ter 11 bankruptcy protection in
February, after it was hit withhundreds of sex-abuse lawsuits.
The Boy Scouts has experi-
enced long-declining member-
ship numbers and years of cul-
tural fights over whether girls,
gay and transgender youths
should be able to join. About
405,000 members affiliated
with units sponsored by the
Church of Jesus Christ of Lat-
ter-day Saints left the Boy
Scouts in early 2020, trim-
ming its membership count to
1.8 million.
The bankruptcy process al-
lows the Boy Scouts to create a
trust to pay damage claims and
get clear of legal trouble. The
national Boy Scouts organiza-
tion and the local councils that
control most of the group’s
multibillion-dollar trove of real
estate, investments, art and
other wealth are engaged in
talks with creditors, who are
probing for assets that can be
used to satisfy claims.
—Andrew Scurria
contributed to this article.The Boy Scouts of America
will face the last batch of
thousands of sex-abuse claims
Monday, the deadline for peo-
ple alleging they were abused
as children to come forward in
what is shaping up to be the
largest bankruptcy case of its
kind.
More than 70,000 claims
are expected to be filed by
Monday in bankruptcy court,
according to attorneys in-
volved in the case. The Boy
Scouts filed for chapter 11 pro-
tection from lawsuits accusing
the organization of not taking
the necessary precautions to
protect the children who
joined the group.
The number of claims in the
Boy Scouts bankruptcy case is
many times the magnitude of
the claims in more than 20
Roman Catholic Church dioce-
san and religious-order bank-
BYJOSEPHDEAVILA
ANDPEGBRICKLEY
Deadline Looms for Abuse Claims Against Boy Scouts
WASHINGTON—A federal
judge in New York invalidated
Trump administration rules
narrowing the program that
protects immigrants living in
the U.S. since childhood with-
out legal permission, finding
the restrictions were improp-
erly issued.
The ruling Saturday restores
the program, called Deferred
Action for Childhood Arrivals,
or DACA, to near-full opera-
tion, after multiple attempts by
the Trump administration to
end or curtail it. That means,
for the first time since Septem-
ber 2017, new applicants who
weren’t previously eligible,
typically because they were too
young, may now apply.
The DACA program was cre-
ated by the Obama administra-
tion in 2012 to protect the
young immigrants, known as
Dreamers, who have been living
in the country without legal
permission since childhood, and
has been the subject of legal
battles for the past three years.
In June, the Supreme Court
ruled the Trump administra-
tion’s first attempt to end the
program didn’t follow the
proper procedure required for
federal policy-making.
The following month, acting
Homeland Security Secretary
Chad Wolf issued a memoran-
dum narrowing the program to
existing applicants, who would
be offered renewals of only one
year, rather than two, and clos-
BYMICHELLEHACKMAN
Young Immigrant Program Is Restored
A judge said acting DHS head Chad Wolf, center, couldn’t limit DACA because he was improperly appointed.JOEL MARTINEZ/THE MONITOR/ASSOCIATED PRESSMore than 70,000 sex-abuse claims are expected in bankruptcy case.CHRISTOPHER MILLETTE/ERIE TIMES-NEWS/ASSOCIATED PRESS Trump allies court Newsmax
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