New documents: Trump paid over $1 million to settle labor lawsuit

President Trump paid out more than $1 million in the late 1990s to a group of Polish workers in the country illegally who demolished the building that would eventually be replaced by Trump Tower in Manhattan, according to recently unsealed documents.

The workers in 1980 received as little as $4 per hour, and worked 12-hour shifts without gloves, hard hats or masks to demolish the Bonwit Teller building on Fifth Avenue, The New York Times reported Monday.

Trump testified that he did not remember the Polish workers being on the job.

Trump paid $1.375 million to settle the case, with $500,000 going to a union benefits fund and the rest covering lawyers’ fees and expenses. The case was settled in 1998.

Details of the settlement remained secret, but last week documents were unsealed in response to a 2016 motion filed by Time Inc. and the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press. 

During his presidential campaign and since taking office, Trump has frequently lamented the loss of American jobs to immigrants and workers overseas.

In June 2016, Trump took to Twitter to brag about his record in lawsuits.