When the Government Department soft-launched in Washington, DC, final spring, the personal membership’s preliminary buzz centered on its starry roster of backers and founding members. The president’s eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., is without doubt one of the membership’s a number of co-owners, in line with earlier reporting. Founding members reportedly embody Trump administration AI czar David Sacks and his All-In podcast cohost Chamath Palihapitiya, in addition to crypto bigwigs Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss.
“We needed to create one thing new, hipper, and Trump-aligned,” Sacks said on the time. Proximity to Trumpworld didn’t come low cost; although the membership headquarters is located in a basement area behind a purchasing complicated, charges to hitch are reportedly as excessive as $500,000.
The preliminary wave of press for the MAGA scorching spot identified Trump Jr. and his enterprise associates Omeed Malik, Chris Buskirk, and Zach and Alex Witkoff because the membership’s co-owners. A Mom Jones report later revealed the involvement of David Sacks’ frequent enterprise affiliate Glenn Gilmore, a San Francisco Bay Space actual property developer who’s given a wide range of titles on official paperwork, together with co-owner, managing member, director, and president.
However in line with company filings reviewed by WIRED, there’s one other key determine whose involvement has not been beforehand reported and whose connection to its extra well-known founders stays unclear: Sean LoJacono, a former Metropolitan Police Division cop in Washington, DC, who gained native notoriety for his function in a cease and frisk that resulted in a lawsuit.
In line with the authorized criticism, in 2017, after questioning a person named M.B. Cottingham for a suspected open-container-law violation, LoJacono carried out a physique search. A recording of the incident went viral on YouTube, sparking intense debate over aggressive policing ways. “He caught his finger in my crack,” Cottingham says within the video. “Cease fingering me, although, bro.” The following 12 months, the American Civil Liberties Union of the District of Columbia sued LoJacono on behalf of Cottingham, alleging that LoJacono had “jammed his fingers between Mr. Cottingham’s buttocks and grabbed his genitals.” Cottingham agreed to settle his lawsuit with LoJacono and was paid an undisclosed quantity by the District of Columbia (which admitted no wrongdoing) in 2018.
The MPD announced its intention to dismiss LoJacono following an inside affairs investigation, which concluded that the Cottingham search was not a fireable offense however that one other search he had carried out the identical day was. By early 2019, LoJacono had appealed his dismissal, arguing in well-publicized hearings that he had carried out searches in line with how he had been taught by fellow officers within the subject. Initially, the dismissal was upheld. Nonetheless, the police union’s collective bargaining settlement enabled LoJacono to additional attraction to a third-party arbitrator, which in November 2023 ruled in LoJacono’s favor.
As a substitute of returning to the police drive, although, LoJacono has gone down a distinct path. A LinkedIn account that includes LoJacono’s identify, likeness, and employment historical past lists his occupation as “Director of Safety and Amenities Administration” at an unnamed personal membership in Washington, DC, from June 2025 to the current. Official incorporation paperwork for the Government Department Restricted Legal responsibility Firm filed to the Authorities of the District of Columbia’s companies division in March 2025, shortly earlier than the membership launched, lists LoJacono because the “useful proprietor” of the enterprise. The handle listed on the paperwork matches the Government Department’s location. Donald Trump Jr. and different reported homeowners will not be listed on the paperwork; Gilmore is listed on this doc as the corporate’s “organizer.”
The paperwork signifies that LoJacono is taken into account a useful proprietor of a authorized entity related to the Government Department. However what does that imply, precisely?
