The Kennedy Center has been ordered to pay more than $250,000 in legal fees to jazz musician Chuck Redd after suing him over his decision to cancel a performance and publicly oppose President Donald Trump’s name being added to the arts institution.
D.C. Superior Court Judge Tanya Jones Bosier ordered the Kennedy Center to pay Redd $252,479.70 in attorneys’ fees and costs, nearly all of the roughly $258,000 he sought.
Redd had been scheduled to perform at the performing arts center’s free Christmas Eve “Jazz Jam,” but backed out after its board voted in December to add Trump’s name to the building and branding. The musician also sent a statement to the Associated Press explaining his decision at the time.
As TheWrap previously reported, Kennedy Center leadership subsequently threatened Redd with a $1 million lawsuit, with then-president Richard Grenell accusing him of pulling a “political stunt.”
The center ultimately sued Redd for breach of contract, arguing that he had agreed to perform and accusing him of using its public platform to make a political statement.
But Bosier dismissed the lawsuit in June, finding that Redd had never signed a contract for the performance. She also sided with Redd under Washington, D.C.’s Anti-SLAPP Act, which protects speech on matters of public interest from lawsuits intended to silence or intimidate critics.
The judge noted that multiple artists had canceled performances following the Trump name change, but Redd was the only performer known to have publicly explained his decision and subsequently been sued.
The Kennedy Center objected to Redd’s request for legal fees, calling the amount “nothing short of astonishing” and arguing that it was disproportionate to the complexity of the case.
The Kennedy Center did not immediately respond to TheWrap’s request for comment.
