The New York state attorney general sued U. S. President Donald Trump, three of his children and his foundation on Thursday, saying he illegally used the nonprofit as a personal „checkbook“ for his own benefit, including his 2016 presidential campaign.<\/b>
\nNEW YORK (Reuters) – The New York state attorney general sued U. S. President Donald Trump, three of his children and his foundation on Thursday, saying he illegally used the nonprofit as a personal \u201ccheckbook\u201d for his own benefit, including his 2016 presidential campaign.
Barbara Underwood, the attorney general, asked a state judge to dissolve the Donald J. Trump Foundation and to ban Trump, his sons Donald Jr. and Eric, and his daughter Ivanka from holding leadership roles in New York charities. The three children joined the foundation\u2019s board in 2006, although Ivanka stepped down to work at the White House in 2017.
Underwood said her office\u2019s 21-month investigation, begun under her predecessor Eric Schneiderman, uncovered \u201cextensive unlawful political coordination\u201d by the foundation with Trump\u2019s campaign, as well as \u201crepeated and willful self-dealing\u201d to benefit Trump\u2019s personal, business and political interests.
Among the transactions the lawsuit cited as illegal was a $10,000 payment to the Unicorn Children\u2019s Foundation for a portrait of Trump purchased at a fundraising auction in 2014. The portrait would end up decorating a wall at Trump\u2019s Doral golf resort near Miami, the Washington Post reported.
Another $100,000 went to another charity in 2007 to settle a legal dispute over a flagpole erected in violation of local ordinances at Mar-a-Lago, Trump\u2019s private club and sometime residence in Palm Beach, Florida.
„Mr. Trump ran the Foundation according to his whim, rather than the law,“ the lawsuit on.ny.gov\/2lbdv0V said.
The lawsuit, filed on Trump\u2019s 72nd birthday in the state Supreme Court in Manhattan, seeks $2.8 million of restitution plus penalties, a 10-year ban on Trump serving as a director of a New York nonprofit, and one-year bans for his children.
\u201cAs 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,\u201d Underwood said in a statement. \u201cThat is not how private foundations should function.\u201d
The foundation had no employees, had never written a required protocol for disbursing funds and its board of directors, which \u201cexisted in name only,\u201d had not met since 1999, the lawsuit said.
The Republican president attacked the lawsuit in a series of posts on Twitter that blamed Democratic politicians in his home state.
\u201cI won\u2019t settle this case!\u201d Trump wrote, calling the lawsuit ridiculous and engineered by \u201csleazy New York Democrats.\u201d
During the 2016 presidential race, Trump frequently derided a charity run by the family of his Democratic rival, Hillary Clinton, saying without proof that the former secretary of state gave favorable treatment to the Clinton Foundation\u2019s wealthy donors.
Both Clinton and the Clinton Foundation, best known for helping to lower the cost of HIV drugs in the developing world, dismissed those attacks as political mudslinging.
The Trump Foundation issued a statement criticizing the latest lawsuit as \u201cpolitics at its very worst\u201d and accusing the attorney general of holding its $1.7 million in remaining funds \u201chostage for political gain.\u201d
The New York City-based foundation said in a statement it had disbursed more than $19 million to \u201cworthy charitable causes\u201d since its founding in 1987. Trump himself had contributed more than $8 million, and the foundation had already announced its intention to dissolve in 2016, the statement said. FUNDRAISER FOR VETERANS
The lawsuit adds to Trump\u2019s legal problems, including an investigation by Special Counsel Robert Mueller into whether his 2016 campaign colluded with Russia. Trump has denied there was any collusion, and Russia has denied meddling in the election.
The lawsuit challenges the Trump Foundation\u2019s role in an Iowa fundraiser for military veterans that Trump organized in 2016 instead of taking part in one of the Republican debates.
Some $2.8 million went to the foundation, the lawsuit said, and the foundation wrongly ceded control of those funds to Trump\u2019s campaign staff, who wrongly disbursed grants at campaign rallies for Trump\u2019s political benefit. Tax-exempt nonprofit groups are legally required to avoid partisan politics.
The lawsuit said Corey Lewandowski, then Trump\u2019s campaign manager, directed some of the funds to be disbursed in Iowa shortly before its caucuses, where voters from the state gather in the first electoral competition to choose parties\u2019 presidential nominees. Lewandowski, who is not a target of the lawsuit, did not respond to a request for comment.
Paul S. Ryan, head of litigation at Common Cause, a nonpartisan watchdog group in Washington, said the New York filing provides details of actions that could also violate a federal ban on campaigns funneling \u201csoft money\u201d through nonprofits.
\u201cThis involvement of the Trump campaign in the foundation\u2019s disbursements right before the Iowa caucuses may very well violate the campaign finance law soft money ban,\u201d Ryan said in an interview.
The attorney general said she also sent letters about possible breaches of federal law to the Federal Election Commission (FEC) and Internal Revenue Service. Both agencies declined to comment.<\/p>\n

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