Not so happy birthday? The New York attorney general filed a $2.8 million lawsuit against President Donald Trump’s foundation on Thursday, June 14, the commander in chief’s 72nd birthday, The New York Times reports.
According to the newspaper, Attorney General Barbara Underwood is accusing the charitable Donald J. Trump Foundation and its directors — the president himself and his children Donald Trump Jr., Ivanka Trump and Eric Trump — of violating campaign finance laws, self-dealing and illegal coordination with the presidential campaign. She is seeking to dissolve the foundation, in addition to barring Donald Sr. from serving on nonprofit organizations for 10 years, and his three eldest kids for one year.
The Times reports that Underwood, 73, also sent referral letters to the International Revenue Service (IRS) and the Federal Election Commission (FEC) to further look into possible violations of federal law. The complaint claims that the foundation engaged in transactions that benefitted the real estate mogul’s personal and business interests, including spending $10,000 on a 4-foot-tall portrait of himself.
Underwood called the foundation “little more than a checkbook for payments from Mr. Trump or his business to nonprofits” in the suit obtained by the paper.
The real estate mogul reacted to the filing in a series of tweets. “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,” he wrote. “I won’t settle this case! 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.”
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
Schneiderman, 63, resigned from his post as New York attorney general in May after The New Yorker reported allegations of physical assault by four women. He “strongly contested” the claims in a statement, adding, “I have engaged in role-playing and other consensual sexual activity. I have not assaulted anyone. I have never engaged in nonconsensual sex, which is a line I would not cross.” Underwood assumed the position soon after.
