WASHINGTON – A California judge on Monday ordered the parties involved in a dispute over the family finances of Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., to be settled through private mediation, according to reports.
Feinstein – with her daughter as a legal representative – have argued in three separate lawsuits to sell a million dollar home in California and receive proceeds from the estate and the life insurance of Feinstein’s late husband, Richard Blum, to help cover the 90-year-old lawmaker’s medical expenses, according to The New York Times.
One of the lawsuits filed last month claims that Blum established a trust for Feinstein in the 1990s that was supposed to be created for her after his death. It was required to be funded with $5 million in cash and other securities, with income distributed to her in frequent installments.
Upon Feinstein’s death, the trust’s assets would be inherited by Blum’s three daughters, whom he had in a previous marriage.
Both Feinstein and her daughter have alleged that the current trustees of Blum’s account − Michael Klein, Marc Scholvinck and Verett Mims − haven’t funded or made any of the required income distributions to the 90-year-old senator, and have refused Feinstein’s requests to do so. They further claim that the trustees’ inaction shows that it intends to benefit Blum’s daughters.
Steven P. Braccini, attorney for Klein and Scholvinck, previously denied the accusations in a statement.
“The trustees have acted ethically and appropriately at all times…This filing is unconscionable,” Braccini told USA TODAY. “The trustees 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.”
On Monday, John A. Hartog, an attorney for Feinstein’s daughter, asked Judge Roger Picquet who is overseeing the case to order the trustees to sell the house immediately “at a commercially reasonable price,” but Picquet declined, according to the Times.
Picquet said he hopes mediation could resolve all the issues, the Times reported.
Feinstein told the San Francisco Chronicle last week that “I’ve asked my daughter to handle the case. And it’s so I can focus on what I’m doing back here in Washington. It’s a difficult time for me, and so I really don’t have time for other things.”
