Attorneys for Dianne Feinstein are alleging financial elder abuse in a new lawsuit seeking to remove managers of a trust established by the senator’s late-husband Richard Blum.
The lawsuit, which was filed on 8 August by Feinstein’s attorneys and her daughter Katherine Feinstein, claims co-trustees Michael Klein and Marc Scholvinck failed to fund a sub-trust – of which Feinstein, 90, is the sole beneficiary – from Blum’s estate. Withholding the funds was meant to benefit Blum’s three daughters who “stand to inherit millions of dollars”, Feinstein’s attorneys wrote in court filings. The lawsuit is also seeking Klein and Scholvinck be removed as co-trustees.
The current lawsuit follows two others filed in June and July on Feinstein’s behalf. In June, the lawmaker’s attorneys sued Klein, arguing that he hadn’t put any money into the marital trust Blum and Feinstein established in 1996. The following month, lawyers filed another lawsuit accusing Klein and Scholvinck of failing to reimburse Feinstein’s for “significant medical expenses” following an illness.
“Despite the settlor’s intent to support his spouse after his death, the purported trustees have refused to make distributions to reimburse Senator Feinstein’s medical expenses,” the July lawsuit reads.
The suit also alleges the pair have improperly “funded gifts to Blum’s daughters or forgiven their indebtedness”, before giving Feinstein what the trust says she should have. The San Francisco Chronicle reported Blum’s three daughters stand to inherit at least $22m each, according to the trust directions, after Feinstein’s death if the funds are available.
An attorney representing Klein and Scholvinck previously told the Chronicle that they have “never denied any disbursement to Senator Feinstein”, and have always respected Senator Feinstein and always will. “But this has nothing to do with her needs and everything to do with her daughter’s avarice.”
Feinstein, who says she will not seek re-election in 2024, has faced a slew of public health challenges that have raised questions about whether she has the mental and physical fitness to complete her final term in office. Earlier in the year, Feinstein was absent from Congress for two months while she underwent treatment for shingles. And in May, Feinstein’s fitness made headlines after a confusing interaction with reporters during which the senator asserted that she hadn’t been absent from her post at all.
“I haven’t been gone. I’ve been working,” Feinstein told Newell and another reporter, according to a Slate article published on 16 May. She was asked if she meant she had been working remotely, to which Feinstein responded: “No, I’ve been here. I’ve been voting. Please. You either know or don’t know.”
And earlier this month Feinstein was briefly hospitalized after falling in her home.
Feinstein was the first woman to become mayor of San Francisco and was elected to the US Senate in 1992. As a senator, she led the effort to pass a landmark 1994 assault weapons ban. Between 2017 and 2021, she led Democrats on the judiciary committee, where she helmed a landmark investigation into the CIA’s detention and interrogation program.
