Trump’s charitable foundation plans to dissolve

President Donald Trump’s charitable foundation said in a tax filing that it intends to dissolve, as Trump promised it would last December to avoid conflicts of interest.

The Donald J. Trump Foundation said in its annual tax return for 2016 that it raised $2.9 million over the course of the year and gave away $3.1 million, much of it to veterans organizations. It received a $1 million donation from Laura Perlmutter, the wife of Marvel Entertainment Chairman Isaac Perlmutter, a prominent Trump supporter, and another from casino magnate Phil Ruffin. Ivanka Trump gave her father’s foundation $100,000.

The foundation said in a statement attached to the return that it has “announced its intent to dissolve and is seeking approval to distribute its remaining funds to highly qualified and important section 501(c)(3) charities.” It didn’t say when it would close.

The tax filing was due to the Internal Revenue Service on Nov. 15 and was made public on Monday by the nonprofit-tracking site Guidestar.org. NBC News reported the filing earlier.

The White House didn’t immediately respond. Trump said as president-elect in December that he would close the foundation, which was the subject of a serious of critical reports in 2016 by the Washington Post that won the Pulitzer Prize. The foundation’s practices drew the scrutiny of New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman, who ordered it to cease fundraising in October 2016 until it obtained state licensing.

Amy Spitalnick, a spokeswoman for Schneiderman, said the investigation of the foundation “remains ongoing” and fundraising activities remain suspended following the attorney general’s notice of violation last year. The foundation “cannot legally dissolve until that investigation is complete,” Spitalnick said in an emailed statement.

Also Monday, the Post reported that one of Trump’s golf courses paid back more than $158,000 to Trump’s charitable foundation this year, reimbursing the charity for money that had been used to settle a lawsuit against the club, according to a new tax filing.

The reimbursement by Trump National Golf Club in Westchester County, N.Y., was detailed in the foundation’s 2016 tax filing, which was released Monday by GuideStar. Along with that payment, the foundation received another $62,184 in reimbursements from unidentified sources, the document shows.

The filing “definitely reflects an effort to get the house in order, so to speak, before shutting down,” said Marcus S. Owens, a former IRS official who once headed the agency’s nonprofits division.