New Jersey Tells Trump’s Golf Clubs to Show They Deserve Liquor Licenses
New Jersey alcoholic beverage regulators on Friday ordered two of former President Donald J. Trump’s golf clubs to demonstrate why their liquor licenses should be renewed after he was found guilty of falsifying business records.
Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, Mr. Trump’s frequent retreat during his four years in office, and Trump National Golf Club in Colts Neck will be subject to a July 19 hearing in Trenton, according to Kirstin Krueger, interim director of the New Jersey Division of Alcoholic Beverage Control.
Mr. Trump’s felony convictions last month in a New York court “raise concerns as to whether this licensee remains qualified to hold said license,” Ms. Krueger wrote in letters to Donald J. Trump Jr., executive vice president of the Trump Organization. The former president, who is running against President Biden to reclaim the White House, has a direct interest in the licenses, the division found.
A lawyer for Mr. Trump did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Friday afternoon.
A New York jury found Mr. Trump guilty of 34 felony counts of falsifying business records related to his cover-up of a sex scandal during his 2016 presidential run. The verdict, the first criminal conviction of an American president, made Mr. Trump a felon.
Ms. Krueger, in her letters, cited the division’s “discretion to deny an application based on a review of the applicant’s background and character.”
At the core of the New York case was a hush-money payment to a porn star, Stormy Daniels. Mr. Trump’s former personal lawyer and fixer, Michael D. Cohen, paid Ms. Daniels $130,000 to silence her story of a sexual encounter with Mr. Trump, who then falsified the records to conceal his repayment of Mr. Cohen.