Maryland Rep. Elijah Cummings on Tuesday asked attorneys representing the Trump Foundation for a series of tax documents in which the foundation may have admitted to violating laws that prohibit the use of charitable funds for personal financial gain.
Cummings’ request came after a nonprofit-tracking website published the foundation’s 2015 tax filing with the IRS.
The foundation had checked “yes” on the form when asked if it had transferred “income or assets to a disqualified person,” meaning foundation money was moved to someone such as President-elect Trump or his children, all of whom are legally barred from using funds.
“If these accounts are accurate, this new documents appears to corroborate multiple reports of self-dealing that have been repeatedly denied or disregarded by President-elect Trump over the past year,” Cummings wrote in a letter to Trump’s lawyers.
Trump had been accused of contributing several thousand dollars of foundation money to a veterans’ charity in 2007 to escape paying fines imposed on his beach resort in West Palm Beach, Fla., among other allegations of self-dealing that surfaced during his campaign.
Cummings, the top Democrat on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, said lawmakers deserve to know what penalties or excise taxes, if any, Trump was forced to pay for violating the laws and which individuals illegally received funds from the foundation.
Cummings also requested documents that reveal how much was transferred to the president-elect or others and whether Trump was aware of instances of self-dealing.
The Trump team did not immediately return the Washington Examiner’s request for comment.
