Trump Foundation broke law, lawsuit in NY alleges
ALBANY, N.Y. – The state attorney general seeks to shut down President Donald Trump’s charitable foundation, accusing the president of using the charity to advance his self-interests and boost his 2016 presidential campaign.
The lawsuit from Attorney General Barbara Underwood, filed Thursday in state Supreme Court in Manhattan, lists a wide array of alleged lawbreaking over more than a decade and asks a judge to force the foundation, Trump and his family to pay $2.8 million in restitution.
In particular, the lawsuit takes issue with the foundation’s Iowa fundraiser for veterans organizations Jan. 28, 2016, days before the Iowa caucuses.
Underwood claims the event was largely run by Trump’s campaign staff, which directed where the funds went. When Trump issued enlarged checks to the veterans organizations, they had his “Make America Great Again” campaign slogan on the bottom.
New York law prohibits charities from participating in political events.
“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,” Underwood 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.”
Trump vowed on Twitter that he would not settle the case. He called it “ridiculous” and blamed former state Attorney General Eric Schneiderman, a Trump foe who resigned last month after he was accused of physically abusing women. Underwood, his former solicitor general, succeeded him.
“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,” Trump wrote. “I won’t settle this case!”
Donald Trump Jr., Ivanka Trump and Eric Trump are also named as defendants in the suit.
Underwood’s lawsuit accuses the Trump Foundation board of being largely nonexistent, failing to hold a meeting since 1999 and allowing Trump to determine when and where contributions were made.
Several times, the foundation paid six-figure sums to other foundations to settle legal issues at Mar-a-Lago and Trump’s other clubs in violation of state and federal law, the lawsuit says.