The commission took on Fortt’s case, and she says a young Donald Trump appeared with a lawyer at a hearing on behalf of the family real estate company, Trump Management.
Her case also became part of a federal racial discrimination lawsuit filed by the Justice Department against Donald and Fred Trump that was resolved with a consent decree two years later in which they agreed to terms aimed at preventing discrimination.
That lawsuit is the basis of a new video from Hillary Clinton’s campaign, released Tuesday. The video, which features a tearful interview with a retired nurse who says she was denied an apartment, notes that while the racial discrimination allegations began when Fred Trump was running the company, they persisted after his son became president of the firm.
Trump denies the company discriminated against blacks.
“There is absolutely no merit to the allegations,” his spokeswoman, Hope Hicks, said in an email to NBC News. “This suit was brought as part of a nationwide inquiry against a number of companies, and the matter was ultimately settled without any finding of liability and without any admission of wrongdoing whatsoever.”
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