A judge tossed out part of the DC attorney general's lawsuit alleging Trump's 2017 inaugural fund misused its money

• Washington, DC's attorney general sued Trump's 2017 inaugural fund, alleging it misused tax-free money.
• A judge on Monday night dismissed part of the lawsuit and dropped the Trump Organization as a defendant.

Former President Donald Trump notched a win in court Monday night as a judge dismissed part of a lawsuit the Washington, DC, attorney general brought against his inaugural fund.

The court decision, from DC Superior Court Judge José M. López, dropped the Trump Organization as a defendant from the lawsuit.

The accusations against Trump's 2017 inaugural committee, however, will proceed to trial.

In January 2020, DC Attorney General Karl A. Racine brought a civil lawsuit against the Trump Organization, the Trump International Hotel in DC, and Trump's 2017 presidential inaugural committee, which is a tax-exempt nonprofit. He accused the entities of overpaying for event space in the hotel, thereby using tax-free funds to improperly pay the Trump Organization and members of the Trump family.

The inaugural fund spent $104 million - a record for a presidential inauguration, and twice as much as what was spent on former President Barack Obama's 2008 inauguration, according to ABC News.

Racine's lawsuit sought to get back around $1 million, and direct those funds to other nonprofits engaging in civic work.

Attorneys representing the Trump Organization and the inaugural committee had asked López to dismiss the case. In Monday's ruling, López dismissed accusations that committee officials misused nonprofit funds, saying that Racine's office hadn't met the high bar to prove that committee officials spent "so far beyond the bounds of reasonable business judgment that its only explanation was bad faith."

The allegations regarding overusing charity funds could proceed in court, however, López wrote.

"Did higher ranking Trump family officials have the ability to control the workings of the [committee?]" Lopez wrote. "Did members of the [committee] ignore internal recommendations to pay the Trump Hotel for services that could have been offered for free? If so, did they make those payments for strategic reasons, or for other purposes?"

Racine's office said in a statement that it plans to bring the lawsuit to the trial phase. Attorneys representing the inaugural fund haven't said whether they plan to appeal the part of López's ruling allowing the case to proceed.

The lawsuit over the inaugural fund is one of around a dozen major civil lawsuits Trump is battling now that he is no longer president. Racine's office deposed Ivanka Trump for the lawsuit in December, and has signaled it wants to interview other officials who worked on the inauguration fund as well.