TRUMP TOLD TO PAY $2MN FOR MISUSING NAMESAKE CHARITY
WASHINGTON: A New York state judge on Thursday ordered US President Donald Trump to pay $2 million in damages to charities after he admitted to using Trump Foundation funds to pay off debts owed by his for-profit businesses, further his presidential campaign and buy a portrait of himself for one of his properties.
The court also ordered that the remaining funds of the charity, $1.8 million, be disbursed, along with the $2 million in damages, to charities not connected to the foundation and his role in a charity be closely supervised.
Also, his three adult children Don, Ivanka and Eric - who were on the board of the foundation will undergo training to be made aware of how charities function.
“Mr. Trump’s fiduciary duty breaches included allowing his campaign to orchestrate the Fundraiser, allowing his campaign, instead of the Foundation, to direct distribution of the Funds, and using the Fundraiser and distribution of the Funds to further Mr. Trump’s political campaign,” New York Supreme Court Justice Salliann Scarpulla wrote in a seven-page order.
She was referring to a fundraiser Trump had held in January 2016 in Iowa for military veterans. The event had raised $2.8 million, which Trump at his rallies before the Iowa caucus.
UPCOMING BOOK CALLS TRUMP ‘INCOMPETENT’
A forthcoming book by an anonymous author identified as “a senior official in the Trump administration” describes Trump as volatile, incompetent and unfit to be commander in chief, according to excerpts published by The Washington Post.