As NY AG sues ‘corrupt’ Donald charity
New York Attorney General Barbara Underwood filed a lawsuit against President Trump on Thursday, alleging that he illegally used money from his charitable foundation to pay legal settlements, decorate one of his golf clubs and boost his 2016 campaign.
“As our investigation reveals, the Trump Foundation was little more than a checkbook for payments from Mr. Trump or his businesses to nonprofits, regardless of their purpose or legality,” the Democratic AG said in a statement. “This is not how private foundations should function, and my office intends to hold the foundation and its directors accountable for its misuse of charitable assets.”
An Underwood spokeswoman called the timing of the Manhattan Supreme Court suit, on Trump’s 72nd birthday, “pure coincidence.”
The AG is suing to dissolve the Donald J. Trump Foundation and secure $2.8 million in restitution for the charity’s “persistently illegal conduct,” including “improper and extensive political activity” and “repeated and willful self-dealing.”
The suit also seeks to bar Trump from serving as director of a charitable organization for 10 years, while his kids Donald Trump Jr., Ivanka Trump and Eric Trump, all foundation board members named in the suit, would be banned for a year.
Among the charges in the scathing suit:
The foundation allowed itself to be “co-opted” by Trump’s 2016 election campaign — raising money to be doled out at campaign events “to advance his political goals.”
The IRS prohibits tax-exempt organizations from aiding in political campaigns.
The campaign and the foundation worked hand-in-hand to stage a televised “Trump for Vets” event in Iowa a week before the state’s February 2016 caucuses — bringing in $5.6 million of tax-free donations, $2.83 million of which went into the foundation’s coffers while the rest went straight to charitable groups, according to the suit.
Then-campaign manager Corey Lewandowski dictated which veterans groups would get the money, and Trump then handed out giant novelty checks — with the foundation’s name and “Make America Great Again” printed on them — to the recipients at rallies, making “Trump and the campaign look charitable.”
The foundation “is little more than an empty shell that functions with no oversight by its board of directors,” which hasn’t met since 1999 — and in its absence, “Trump ran the foundation according to his whim, rather than the law.”
In 2014, the future president made a winning $10,000 bid on a portrait of himself at a charity auction — then used the foundation’s cash to foot the bill. The painting was used to decorate the Trump National Doral Golf Club in Miami.
In 2012, he used the foundation to raise money for — and then pay off — a legal settlement between a Wall Street bigwig and Trump’s Westchester golf club.
Commodities-trading exec Martin Greenberg won a $1 million contest to score a hole-in-one on the 13th hole during a charity event at the course, but the competition’s insurer refused to pay, claiming Greenberg didn’t hit the ball from the correct distance.
When Greenberg sued and won a $158,000 settlement, Trump’s foundation held an auction for a lifetime membership to his golf courses to raise the cash.
A contract between the auction site managing the bids and the foundation — signed by Trump attorney Michael Cohen — falsely claimed the money was going to the charity rather than to pay off the settlement, court documents allege.
A foundation representative on Thursday slammed the lawsuit as “politics at its very worst.”
“The foundation has donated over $19 million to worthy charitable causes — more than it even received. The president himself — or through his companies — has contributed more than $8 million,” the rep said in a statement.
“The acting NYAG’s recent statement that battling the White House is ‘the most important work [she] have ever done’ shows that such political attacks will continue unabated.”
Underwood was promoted to attorney general in May after Eric Schneiderman resigned over allegations of sexual assault.
On Twitter Thursday, Trump gave a sharply worded defense.
“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!” Trump tweeted.