In an interview Tuesday night on CNN, New York’s Attorney General Eric Schneiderman said his interest in pursuing legal action against Trump University – and scrutinizing any possible “impropriety” in the Donald J. Trump Foundation – “is in my capacity as regulator of non-profits in New York state”. “We’ve inquired into it and we’ve had correspondence with them”.
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Since 2008, the presidential candidate hasn’t given any donation to his own charity.
In 2013, when Schneiderman was looking into Trump University complaints, Trump accused the NY attorney general of trying to shake him – along with his daughter, Ivanka Trump – down for more campaign donations. However, soon the newspaper made some changes in its report after CNN asked questions regarding the accuracy of three of the five donations cited by it.
“My interest in this issue really is in my capacity as regulator of non-profits in NY state”.
A spokesman for the Trump campaign said in a statement that Schneiderman is a “partisan hack” and the investigation is “another left-wing hit job”, according to the Associated Press.
“This year, the Attorney General is doing everything possible to make sure Hillary Clinton is elected our next President”. The foundation gave a $25,000 donation to a political group tied to Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi. In 2013, Schneiderman’s office sued Trump and his now-defunct university for fraud, seeking $40 million in damages.
The fraud investigation never happened, although Mrs Bondi denies the decision was influenced by the donation she received.
Bondi’s office nixed joining the NY legal action against Trump University, citing insufficient grounds to proceed.
Shady enough that the state of NY has launched an official inquiry into possible “impropriety” in its activities this summer, months before a searing Washington Post expose accusing the nonprofit of mishandling funds, CNN reported on Tuesday evening. At the time, Bondi was reviewing allegations that Trump University swindled students into the false belief they were attending an accredited university. Trump has said the donation was a paperwork error – a clerk mistook the name of Bondi’s group for a similarly named organization in Utah, though the donation itself was routed to Bondi.
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The Post also found other irregularities, including that Trump spent $20,000 of money that had been set aside for charitable purposes to purchase a six-foot (1.8-meter) painting of himself.
