A D.C. Superior Court judge has ordered the Kennedy Center to pay jazz musician Chuck Redd more than $250,000 in legal fees, closing out a lawsuit the venue filed against him last winter. Judge Tanya M. Jones Bosier set the exact figure at $252,479.70.

Redd, a vibraphonist and drummer, had performed the Kennedy Center’s annual Christmas Eve Jazz Jam every year since 2006. He canceled his 2025 performance after President Trump’s name was added to the center’s facade, a move he said he could not perform under.

The Kennedy Center, then led by president Richard Grenell, sued Redd in March, arguing he had broken a performance contract in order to make a political statement and seeking roughly $1 million in damages. Redd’s lawyers countered that no binding contract for the show had ever been signed.

Judge Bosier agreed with Redd in June and threw out the case. Because she dismissed the claims under Washington D.C.’s anti-SLAPP statute, a law designed to deter lawsuits meant to punish protected speech, Redd became entitled to recover the legal costs he had spent defending himself.

The Washington Post reported that the fee award covers the months Redd’s legal team spent fighting the suit after the Kennedy Center went public with its intent to sue him in December. NPR and Variety both reported the same $252,479.70 figure following the ruling.

The Kennedy Center has not said whether it will appeal the fee order. For now, the case stands as a costly outcome for the venue over a Christmas concert that never happened, and a legal precedent for artists who cancel bookings over political objections.

Free-speech advocates criticized the original lawsuit when it was filed, arguing it was meant to discourage other performers from pulling out of Kennedy Center bookings over political objections. Redd has not said whether he intends to return to the Christmas Eve program under its current leadership.