Donald Trump Jr.’s Private DC Club Has Mysterious Ties to an Ex-Cop With a Controversial Past
When the executive A branch soft-launched in Washington, D.C., last spring, the private club’s initial buzz focused on its star-studded list of donors and founding members. The president’s eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., is one of several co-owners of the club, according to previous reports. Founding members reportedly include the Trump administration’s AI czar David Sacks and his All-In podcast co-host Chamath Palihapitiya, as well as crypto bigwigs Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss.
“We wanted to create something new, more hip and aligned with Trump,” Sacks said at the time. Proximity to Trumpworld didn’t come cheap; although the club’s headquarters are located in a basement behind a shopping complex, membership fees are said to be $500,000.
The first wave of press for the MAGA hotspot identified Trump Jr. and his associates Omeed Malik, Chris Buskirk, and Zach and Alex Witkoff as co-owners of the club. A Mother Jones report later revealed the involvement of Glenn Gilmore, a frequent business associate of David Sacks, a Bay Area real estate developer who is given various titles on official documents, including co-owner, managing member, director and president.
But according to company documents reviewed by WIRED, there is another key figure whose involvement has not previously been reported and whose connection to its most famous founders remains unclear: Sean LoJacono, a former Washington, D.C. Metropolitan Police cop who gained local notoriety for his role in a bust that resulted in a trial.
According to the legal complaint, in 2017, after questioning a man named MB Cottingham for an alleged violation of the open container law, LoJacono conducted a body search. A recording of the incident went viral on YouTube, sparking intense debate over the police’s aggressive tactics. “He put his finger in my slit,” Cottingham says in the video. “But stop fingering me, bro.” The following year, the American Civil Liberties Union of the District of Columbia sued LoJacono on behalf of Cottingham, alleging that LoJacono had “stuck his fingers between Mr. Cottingham’s buttocks and grabbed his genitals.” Cottingham agreed to settle his lawsuit with LoJacono and was awarded an undisclosed amount by the District of Columbia (which admitted no wrongdoing) in 2018.
The MPD announced plans to fire LoJacono following an internal affairs investigation, which concluded that the Cottingham search was not a fireable offense, but that another search he conducted on the same day was. In early 2019, LoJacono appealed his firing, arguing in high-profile hearings that he conducted research consistent with how his fellow officers in the field had taught him. Initially, the dismissal was confirmed. However, the police union’s collective bargaining agreement allowed LoJacono to appeal to a third-party arbitrator, who, in November 2023, ruled in LoJacono’s favor.
Instead of returning to policing, LoJacono took a different path. A LinkedIn account featuring LoJacono’s name, likeness, and work history lists his occupation as “director of security and facilities management” at an unnamed private club in Washington, D.C., from June 2025 to the present. Official incorporation documents for the Executive Branch Limited Company filed with the District of Columbia Government Corporation Division in March 2025, shortly before the club launched, list LoJacono as the “beneficial owner” of the company. The address listed on the documents corresponds to the location of the executive branch. Donald Trump Jr. and other reported owners are not listed on the documents; Gilmore is listed on this document as the “organizer” of the company.
The documents indicate that LoJacono is considered the beneficial owner of a legal entity associated with the executive branch. But what exactly does this mean?
