Court documents allege ‘elder financial abuse’ of Sen. Dianne Feinstein
Sen. Dianne Feinstein participates in a reenacted swearing-in with her husband Richard C. Blum and then-Vice President Joe Biden in the Old Senate Chamber at the U.S. Capitol on January 3
By Clare Foran, CNN
(CNN) — A petition filed in San Francisco Superior Court alleges that California Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein has been the victim of “elder financial abuse” with regard to the management of a trust.
The petition states that when Feinstein’s husband Richard Blum died in February 2022, a trust that had been set up by him required its trustees to establish a marital trust funded with $5 million to benefit the senator. But, the petition alleges the trustees “have still neither funded the Marital Trust nor made any of the required income distributions to Senator Feinstein.”
The legal document accuses the trustees of committing “financial abuse” of Feinstein by “wrongfully withholding distributions,” and of “elder financial abuse” by “wrongfully and in bad faith depriving her of property rights.”
The San Francisco Chronicle was first to report on the petition.
The petition has been brought by Katherine Feinstein, who it says has been appointed by the senator “as her attorney-in-fact under a limited durable power of attorney.” The filing states that Katherine is the senator’s daughter from a prior marriage.
Michael Klein, Marc Scholvinck and Verett Mims, are named by the petition as the respondents and as co-trustees of the Richard C. Blum Revocable Trust.
Steven P. Braccini, an attorney for Klein, Scholvinck and Mims, said in a statement that, “the trustees have acted ethically and appropriately at all times; the same cannot be said for Katherine Feinstein,” adding that “this has nothing to do with (Dianne Feinstein’s) needs and everything to do with her daughter’s avarice.”
CNN has reached out to attorneys for Katherine Feinstein.
Adam Russell, a spokesman for the senator’s office, said in a statement to CNN, “This is a private legal matter. Senator Feinstein and her office won’t have any comment.”
The petition makes a number of claims for relief, including calling for the court to compel the trustees to fund the marital trust as well as to suspend the trustees “pending a decision on whether to remove them” and appoint a temporary trustee to replace them.
The senator, who is 90, has faced increased scrutiny over her health in recent months amid a string of health-related issues.
In February, she announced that she would not run for reelection in 2024. She was briefly hospitalized earlier this month after a fall.
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