Trump Foundation To Dissolve Because It Was An Illegal Fraud (Allegedly)

Back in June, The New York attorney general sued Donald Trump and his kids for what certainly sounded like massive fraud.

Specifically, attorney general Barbara Underwood implored a state judge to actually dissolve the Donald J. Trump Foundation citing what the state called a “pattern of illegal conduct that includes 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.”

It doesn’t get much funnier than that and as soon as that news came to light, we noted that those allegations were bang inline with how you’d expect Donald Trump and his children to run a charity.

The State was also looking to force the Foundation to distribute whatever’s left (apparently some $1 million) to other, real charities and pay “at least” $2.8 million in restitution.

Oh, and Underwood wanted Trump barred from running a New York nonprofit for a decade, a notable move as it “seek[s] to apply a penalty usually reserved for the operators of small-time charity frauds to the president of the United States”, to quote WaPo’s coverage.

That was the culmination of an investigation that began in 2016 and Underwood claimed that the findings indicated “that the Foundation was little more than a checkbook for payments to not-for-profits from Mr. Trump of the Trump Organization.”

Imagine that! Hard to believe, no?

I’m just kidding. In fact, I’d be surprised if a Trump charity wasn’t being used as Trump’s personal checkbook.

Fast forward six months and the Trump Foundation has agreed to dissolve under judicial supervision.

The agreement resolves at least one part of the civil suit, but this isn’t over. Note how, above, we mentioned that the state is looking to compel the foundation to pay out $2.8 million in restitution. That fight is ongoing, apparently, as is the push to have Trump and his kids barred from serving on the board of any other New York nonprofit.

Here’s Underwood’s statement, released on Tuesday:

Our petition detailed a shocking pattern of illegality involving the Trump Foundation — including unlawful coordination with the Trump presidential campaign, repeated and willful self-dealing, and much more. This amounted to the Trump Foundation functioning as little more than a checkbook to serve Mr. Trump’s business and political interests.

This is an important victory for the rule of law, making clear that there is one set of rules for everyone. We’ll continue to move our suit forward to ensure that the Trump Foundation and its directors are held to account for their clear and repeated violations of state and federal law.

What else is there to say?

Oh, wait, I know! This:

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

Yes, yes you will.