Lawsuit targets Trump charity
Several violations being alleged by New York attorney general
NEW YORK— The New York state attorney general’s office filed a scathingly worded lawsuit Thursday taking aim at the Donald J. Trump Foundation, accusing the charity and the Trump family of sweeping violations of campaign finance laws, self-dealing and illegal coordination with the presidential campaign.
The lawsuit, which seeks to dissolve the foundation and bar U.S. President Donald Trump and three of his children from serving on the boards of nonprofits, was an extraordinary rebuke of a sitting president. The attorney general also sent referral letters to the IRS and the Federal Election Commission for possible further action, adding to Trump’s extensive legal problems.
The lawsuit, filed in state Supreme Court in Manhattan, culminated a nearly two-year investigation of Trump’s charity, which became a subject of scrutiny during and after the 2016 presidential campaign. While such foundations are supposed to be devoted to charitable activities, the complaint asserts that Trump’s was often used to curry political favour or settle legal claims against his various businesses, and even spent $10,000 on a portrait of Trump that was hung at one of his golf clubs.
The $10,000 portrait was one of several examples of the foundation being used in “at least five self-dealing transactions,” according to the attorney general’s office, violating tax regulations that prohibit using non-profit charities for private interests.
In 2007, to settle a dispute between the city of Palm Beach and Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort, the foundation paid $100,000 to the Fisher House Foundation, another charity.
In 2012, Martin B. Greenberg sued the Trump National Golf Club after he made a hole-inone at a golf tournament that had promised to pay $1 million to golfers who aced the 13th hole, as he did. As part of a settlement, the charitable foundation paid $158,000 to a foundation run by Greenberg.
The foundation also paid $5,000 to one organization for “promotional space featuring Trump International Hotels,” and another $32,000 to satisfy a pledge made by a privately held entity controlled by Trump to a charitable land trust.
The foundation lawsuit and the referrals to the federal agencies are the latest of Trump’s voluminous legal challenges, starting with the ongoing investigation by the special counsel, Robert Mueller, into ties between Trump, his associates and Russia.
“As our investigation reveals, the Trump Foundation was little more than a chequebook for payments from Mr. Trump or his businesses to non-profit, regardless of their purpose or legality,” said Barbara D. Underwood, New York’s attorney general, who has been on her job little over a month. “This is not how private foundations should function and my office intends to hold the foundation accountable for its misuse of charitable assets.”
The attorney general’s office is seeking $2.8 million in restitution, and is seeking to bar the president from serving as a director, officer or trustee of another non-profit for 10 years. Likewise, the petition seeks to bar Trump’s three eldest children, Donald Jr., Ivanka and Eric, from the boards of non-profits based in New York or that operate in New York for one year, which would have the effect of barring them from a wide range of groups based in other states.
The White House did not have an immediate comment.