In the end, Trump reportedly donates his foundation’s money to the charity, and his business pockets the hundreds of thousands of dollars collected for hosting fees.
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There’s been much scrutiny of the Clinton Foundation after reports indicated donors may have been given special treatment from the government while Hillary Clinton was secretary of state.
A Washington Post’s examination into Donald Trump’s charity revealed that almost all contributions made by the Donald J. Trump Foundation come from other charities.
Schneiderman recently filed a lawsuit against Trump University, and in an interview with CNN, said the Manhattan billionaire’s charitable foundation is also under examination. “I didn’t make a big deal out of it or hold a press conference”, Schneiderman said.
“My interest in this issue really is in my capacity as regulator of non-profits in NY state”, Attorney-General Eric Schneiderman told CNN on Tuesday.
In an interview on Tuesday on CNN, Schneiderman, a Democrat who has endorsed Hillary Clinton, said his office has been looking into the Trump Foundation to determine whether it has complied with NY laws governing non-profits.
“We’ve inquired into it and we’ve had correspondence with them”.
Sometimes Trump’s charitable endeavors paid dividends to his commercial businesses as well. In another instance, his wife, Melania, won an auction for a 6-foot portrait of her husband.
The newspaper found other irregularities, including that Trump spent $20,000 of money that had been set aside for charitable purposes to purchase a 6ft painting of himself. The whereabouts of the items is unknown but the Post said it could not find any records to suggest they were donated to another charity or sold off to benefit the the foundation itself. He has called Trump U a “scam”.
Democrats have cited an Associated Press report that Bondi solicited the donation personally, around the time her office was debating whether to join NY state’s investigation into Trump’s real estate training school in Florida. According to USA law, a non-profit organisation can not make political donations.
Schneiderman sued Trump University in 2013, seeking $40 million in restitution.
Trump has accused Schneiderman – who is a Democrat and Hillary Clinton supporter – of playing politics for pursuing the Trump University lawsuit.
Bondi, who has endorsed Trump, has called the AP report misleading.
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However, public statements that Schneiderman has made about Trump raise questions about whether the attorney general is motivated by a desire to see justice done or whether the pursuit of his fellow New Yorker is a politically motivated and highly personal vendetta. At the time, Bondi was reviewing allegations that Trump University swindled students into the false belief they were attending an accredited university.
