A crowdfunding campaign dedicated to helping Chef Jose Andres with fees incurred during his legal battle with Donald Trump has raised more than $7,000 in two weeks.
Spanish media outlet El Pais reports that the Indiegogo campaign was kicked off by former Mexican diplomat Jorge Guajardo.
Trump is pursuing legal action against Andres for backing out of a deal for a flagship restaurant in Trump’s planned Washington, D.C., luxury hotel.
The $10 million breach-of-contract lawsuit was filed late last month in D.C. federal court against Andres’ ThinkFoodGroup and an affiliate company, Topo Atrio LLC. Andres has since fired back at the real-estate mogul, calling the legal action against his restaurant company “unsurprising and without merit.”
Chef Geoffrey Zakarian is facing a similar suit after also cutting ties with the project.
Andres nixed the hotel deal after Trump made disparaging comments about Hispanic immigrants in June. More than 450 customers signed a petition urging Andres to sever ties with Trump, and he did, citing that “more than half of (his) team is Hispanic.”
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