Trump And His Family Accused Of Missing Charity Money
New York’s attorney general filed suit against President Donald Trump and his three eldest children on Thursday, alleging ‘persistently illegal conduct’ at the president’s personal charity.
The suit is filled with scathing charges against the president and his management of his self-named non-profit. It includes allegations of violations of campaign finance laws and illegal coordination with Trump’s presidential campaign.
Prosecutors charge Trump with repeatedly misusing the nonprofit to pay off his businesses’ creditors, to decorate one of his golf clubs and to stage a multimillion dollar giveaway at his 2016 campaign events.
In the suit, filed Thursday morning, New York Attorney General Barbara Underwood asked a state judge to dissolve the Donald J. Trump Foundation, according to The Washington Post.
She asked that its remaining $1 million in assets be distributed to other charities and that Trump be forced to pay at least $2.8 million in restitution and penalties.
Trump slammed the suit in series of tweets made almost immediately after knowledge of it became public.
‘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. I won’t settle this case!,’ he wrote.
Underwood was promoted to attorney general a fews weeks ago, succeeding Schneiderman after he resigned following allegations that he had physically abused some of his romantic partners.
She is a career staffer, not an elected official, who vowed not to seek election for a full term in the job this fall.
Given the two-year length of the investigation, a majority of it was conducted under Schneiderman, who took office in 2011.
Trump focused on the disgraced politiican in his push back.
‘Schneiderman, who ran the Clinton campaign in New York, never had the guts to bring this ridiculous case, which lingered in their office for almost 2 years. Now he resigned his office in disgrace, and his disciples brought it when we would not settle,’ he wrote.
White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders referred to the president’s tweets when she was asked about the lawsuit in her briefing on Thursday.
She said Schneiderman ‘made its stated mission to use this matter to advance his own political gain.’ And Sanders noted Underwood said that ‘battling the White House is the most important job she’s ever done.’
‘That sounds outrageously biased and certainly problematic and very concerning,’ Sanders noted.
Underwood, when she was appointed acting Attorney General in May, talked about the work the attorney general’s office was conducting, including the investigation into Trump’s foundation
‘In many ways, I feel this work is the most important work I have ever done,’ she said.
It’s unclear what Trump was referring to when he wrote Schneiderman ran the Clinton campaign in New York.
Schneiderman was New York attorney general during the 2016 campaign. He and Clinton are both Democrats.
During that contest, his office called on Trump’s foundation to cease and desist fundraising activities in the state as the charity was under investigation for its spending.
Trump’s campaign called for a similar investigation of the Clinton Foundation and said Schneiderman was a ‘partisan hack.’
Schneiderman said concerns about the Clinton Foundation’s fundraising did not rise to the level of an investigation.
Back in 2016, critics of the Clinton Foundation waned a probe of the millions of dollars from individuals who met with the then-secretary of state after either donating or promising to donate to the non-profit, which included funding from foreign governments.
