WASHINGTON — A judge ordered the Kennedy Center to pay $250,000 in legal fees to musician Chuck Redd, whom the arts center sued for canceling a Christmas Eve concert after President Donald Trump’s name was added to the building’s facade.
D.C. Superior Court Judge Tanya Jones Bosier dismissed the case in June, finding conditions of unlawful retaliation against Redd.
In an order Monday, Bosier said she made a “good faith evaluation of records to exclude hours that are arguably duplicative, excessive, or unnecessary” and found that the Kennedy Center owes Redd $252,479.70 for the legal fees he has accrued, to be paid within 45 days.
A Kennedy Center spokesperson said the organization intends to appeal.
Redd’s attorney, Lisa J. Banks, said in a statement that the “Trump-controlled Kennedy Center tried to silence opposition to its illegal name change by filing a meritless lawsuit.”
She said the penalty was “appropriate as no citizen should have to spend time and money fending off baseless and politically motivated lawsuits filed by the Trump Administration.”
Redd had been scheduled to host the center’s annual Christmas Eve Jazz Jam on Dec. 24 but backed out of the free show on Dec. 19 after Trump’s name was added to the facade.
Trump’s name was removed in June after a board member successfully argued that adding it was illegal.
The Kennedy Center had accused Redd of violating its “morals clause” after he went public with the reason he’d backed out, which it described as a decision “to abuse the public forum provided to him by the Center in order to make a political statement, and to deprive the public of the concert he promised.”
The center said his cancellation “incurred damages from lost goodwill with the public, wasted marketing expenses, and sunk costs preparing for a concert that did not occur.”
The facility’s president at the time, Richard Grenell, had threatened to sue Redd for $1 million. The Kennedy Center later offered to settle with him for $7,500.
Redd countered that the concert was free and that he canceled early enough for the center to find a replacement. He noted that he had not signed a contract to perform, arguing that the only reason the center targeted him was that he had spoken out on a matter of “public interest.”
The judge sided with Redd, noting that he was one of several artists who’d been scheduled to perform at a show that was ultimately canceled anyway.
The “Center did not lose any ticket sales as the concert was free, and the entire performance was canceled as a result of multiple artists canceling, so the Center did not incur costs for staff or other performers,” she wrote in her June decision, also noting that Redd — the only one to have spoken out about the name change — appeared to be the only one who was sued.
