In October 2016, the Washington Post reported that Donald Trump had, for decades, apparently used his charitable Trump Foundation as a personal slush fund. The report joined the dozens of other mini-scandals that bounced off “Teflon Don” in that whirlwind campaign, and was largely forgotten—until Thursday, when New York’s acting attorney general, Barbara Underwood, filed a civil suit against President Trump, alleging that he and his children had misused the foundation’s funds to fund business and campaign expenses.
“As our investigation reveals, 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, who temporarily took on the AG job after Eric Schneiderman resigned in disgrace last month, said in a statement. “This is not how private foundations should function, and my office intends to hold the foundation accountable for its misuse of charitable assets.”
The complaint alleges that Trump engaged in “persistent violation of state and federal law governing New York State charities” for more than a decade, including “improper and extensive political activity, repeated and willful self-dealing transactions, and failure to follow basic fiduciary obligations or to implement even elementary corporate formalities required by law.” Underwood is asking a judge to permanently dissolve the Trump Foundation and distribute its assets to other charities, as well as require Trump himself to pay $2.8 million in penalties—an amount prosecutors say corresponds to the $2.8 million the foundation raised at a fundraiser Trump attended in 2016 rather than attending a Republican primary debate.
The suit also names Donald Trump Jr., Ivanka Trump, and Eric Trump, all of who have served as board members.
“The Foundation’s directors failed to meet basic fiduciary duties and abdicated all responsibility for ensuring that the Foundation’s assets were used in compliance with the law,” Underwood wrote.
President Trump fired back against the allegations on Twitter, calling it a “ridiculous case” brought by “sleazy New York Democrats” and pledging to fight it in court.
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!…
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 14, 2018
….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.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 14, 2018
But the suit is corroborated by a large pile of publicly available evidence, including multiple payments the foundation made to settle lawsuits against Trump properties like Mar-a-Lago and the Trump National Golf Club. Further, emails obtained by the Underwood’s office show campaign officials unconcernedly chatting with foundation staffers about how and where to direct funds. For example, in January 2016, then-campaign manager Corey Lewandowski emailed a foundation official to ask, “Is there any way we can make some disbursements this week while in Iowa?” Over the next few days, the AG’s office said, the foundation granted more than $500,000 to Iowa groups.
