This breaking story states: “The New York attorney general on Thursday filed suit against President Trump and his three eldest children alleging “persistently illegal conduct” at the president’s personal charity, saying Trump repeatedly misused the nonprofit — to pay off his businesses’ creditors, to decorate one of his golf clubs and to stage a multimillion dollar giveaway at his 2016 campaign events.”
The alleged violations aren’t really news. The Washington Post has been reporting for years about shady actions by the charity such as buying pictures of Trump.
From NYAG lawsuit: Donald Trump personally ordering the use of $100,000 from his nonprofit foundation to settle a legal issue for his private club Mar-A-Lago. Which is against the law. pic.twitter.com/gA6dcVewU7
— Jon Swaine (@jonswaine) June 14, 2018
Thread https://t.co/zJ9X2zE5vR
— Zerlina Maxwell (@ZerlinaMaxwell) June 14, 2018
Emails show @realdonaldtrump’s campaign dictated who the charity donated to, and how much, despite ban on political activity by nonprofits. https://t.co/LmrrLDhYPG
— David Fahrenthold (@Fahrenthold) June 14, 2018
Trump’s response:
The sleazy New York Democrats, and their now disgraced (and run out of town) A.G. Eric Schneiderman, are doing everything they can to sue me on a foundation that took in $18,800,000 and gave out to charity more money than it took in, $19,200,000. I won’t settle this case!…
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 14, 2018
….Schneiderman, who ran the Clinton campaign in New York, never had the guts to bring this ridiculous case, which lingered in their office for almost 2 years. Now he resigned his office in disgrace, and his disciples brought it when we would not settle.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 14, 2018
Trump also said he would not settle the Trump University suit. He settled it. https://t.co/LUEz40URuZ
— Maggie Haberman (@maggieNYT) June 14, 2018
Lawsuit says Trump made all decisions related to Foundation. None of the Foundation’s expenditures or activities were approved by its Board of Directors. The investigation found that the Board existed in name only: it did not meet after 1999
— Steven D'Souza (@cbcsteve) June 14, 2018
Trump spox @BorisEP said the club did the charity a favor, by storing its portrait for free.
NY AG disagreed. https://t.co/2Yv7L2ZX7R https://t.co/lAGNqEjmPL
— David Fahrenthold (@Fahrenthold) June 14, 2018
If Trump was running his charity as a sprawling, multi-year criminal enterprise, perhaps that’s a small clue about how he ran his business, his campaign, and now the country.
— Matthew Miller (@matthewamiller) June 14, 2018
Statement from the Trump Foundation. pic.twitter.com/2q0TOie31Z
— David Fahrenthold (@Fahrenthold) June 14, 2018
Lawsuit against Trump Foundation for using charity money for campaign purposes highlights need to follow the money in Russia probe.
If Trump family would misuse charitable donations for its financial or political benefit, would it hesitate to launder Russian money to same end? https://t.co/tLZSidMiu1
— Adam Schiff (@RepAdamSchiff) June 14, 2018
update:
Just talking to a former IRS official about this. He was amazed at the range of the violations here. "They hit an extroardinary catalog of how *not* to run a private foundation. There’s little else he could have done that would have made it worse." https://t.co/349rMIV8rr
— David Fahrenthold (@Fahrenthold) June 14, 2018
It's true: @realDonaldTrump's Fdn had 0 employees, no board meetings, and spent v. little on lawyers: its legal expenses averaged nine dollars per year.
Downside of that strategy: they're now being sued for violating several tax laws that lawyers might've warned them about https://t.co/RxHzhMViy2
— David Fahrenthold (@Fahrenthold) June 14, 2018
The six-foot-tall portrait! We still don't know where that one is.
I'd still love to find out what became of it: by law, it's supposed to be used for a charitable purpose, since @realDonaldTrump bought it with $20K in charity money. https://t.co/p0W7gbULnD
— David Fahrenthold (@Fahrenthold) June 14, 2018
Notable: Trump administration has sought to overturn the Johnson Amendment, which prohibits nonprofits from engaging in politics https://t.co/FoaDrDoHIn
— Julie Bykowicz (@bykowicz) June 14, 2018
Seven Springs is Trump's estate in Westchester. Here's background on the easement donation: https://t.co/6UI9r1qSVT
— Richard Rubin (@RichardRubinDC) June 14, 2018
Analysis: The president of the United States was just accused of persistent charity fraud https://t.co/5AnpvO0oMg
— Washington Post (@washingtonpost) June 14, 2018
“Take a moment to savor that last detail. A man claiming to be worth billions of dollars — and who certainly flaunted the lifestyle — appears to have illegally diverted $7 from a charitable foundation to pay his son’s Boy Scouts registration fee.” https://t.co/2yWyUWMmx3
— Shannon Watts (@shannonrwatts) June 16, 2018
"While my years at the IRS brought me into contact with many charities and foundations that had violated federal tax law, few approached the variety of the Trump Foundation's transgressions." — Former head of IRS nonprofit divisionhttps://t.co/nO2fvAjzpV
— Chris Cillizza (@CillizzaCNN) June 19, 2018
Sad! 