Lawsuits

Donald Trump’s Lawyers Say José Andrés Can’t Back Out of Restaurant Contract

Oy.
Oy. Photo: Getty Images

Lawyers for the Trump Organization have finally struck back: After José Andrés scrapped plans to run the new Trump International Hotel’s flagship restaurant in D.C., the sides are suing and countersuing each other. Andrés’s legal team hopes a new filing strengthens their argument that the chef’s ThinkFoodGroup should be let off the hook, explaining that the “perception that Mr. Trump’s statements were anti-Hispanic” will “undermine the sanctity of contracts.” The GOP front-runner’s lawyers call it “pure speculation” that Trump’s inflammatory comments about deporting Mexicans, erecting a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border, etc., could have in any way affected the Spanish restaurant Andrés was in the midst of opening.

They’ve also hit Andrés with a new charge — that he may say he backed out because Trump’s xenophobia made running a restaurant inside his hotel impossible, but this claim is actually “suspect.” Elsewhere in the filing, it suggests Andrés wasn’t as far along in the construction process as he was supposed to be under the lease, so maybe he saw the comments as a convenient out.

[Politico]

Trump Attorneys Hit Back at Chef Jose Andres