A state judge ordered President Trump to pay $2 million in damages to a collection of nonprofit groups on Wednesday as part of a settlement of a lawsuit that accused the Donald J. Trump Foundation of financial mismanagement.
The settlement, finalized last month and announced on Wednesday in the judge’s order, brought an end to a protracted legal battle over the foundation, whose giving patterns and management became a flash point during Mr. Trump’s run for office. The settlement included a detailed admission of misconduct: rare for the president, who has long employed a scorched-earth stance toward fighting lawsuits.
Among those admissions was Mr. Trump’s acknowledgment that a fund-raiser for veterans that the foundation held in Iowa in January 2016, only days before the state’s presidential nominating caucuses, was in fact a campaign event, and that the charity gave his campaign complete control over disbursing the $2.8 million it raised.