Nothing crazy about lawsuit
State attorneys general are notoriously ambitious and partisan, so much so that the letters “A.G.” are often said to stand for “aspiring governor.” And Democrat Eric Schneiderman of New York was among the more aggressively political, at least until his recent resignation over allegations that he had physically abused several former romantic partners. So it’s no surprise that President Donald Trump would greet news of a New York state lawsuit alleging wrongdoing in the charitable foundation that bears his name by calling it “ridiculous” and casting aspersions on Schneiderman’s motives.
There are two reasons to be skeptical of Trump’s attack on the messenger rather than the message: First, Schneiderman’s replacement, who is continuing the lawsuit, Barbara Underwood, while a Democrat to be sure, is one state A.G. who came to her job by accident and has pledged not to run for the office herself. Second, much of the underlying evidence in the New York complaint was first developed not by New York’s authorities but by a reporter, David A. Fahrenthold of The Washington Post, going back to 2016. The New York investigation began in response to Fahrenthold’s reporting, for the sound reason that the Donald J. Trump Foundation is registered as a nonprofit organization in that state.
Trump, together with his adult children, stands accused of treating the foundation as what Underwood called “little more than a checkbook for payments from Trump or his businesses to nonprofits, regardless of their purpose or legality.” The alleged abuses range from the petty—spending $10,000 on a portrait of Trump that ended up in the sports bar at a Trump-owned for-profit golf resort—to the blatantly inappropriate—a $25,000 political donation in support of a Republican attorney general of Florida’s re-election effort.
In several instances, Trump has reimbursed the foundation and paid interest or penalties, after his conduct was exposed by The Post and others. The lawsuit seeks additional penalties, and would liquidate the Trump Foundation and distribute its remaining $1 million in assets among other charities.