“When they call, I give”, Donald Trump proudly said at a GOP primary debate.
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A New Yorker, Trump owns a Florida home as well as resorts and golf courses in the state.
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.
The request also comes as new questions were raised in a Washington Post report about whether Trump has donated as much to charity as he claims.
On two occasions, the Trump Foundation purchased expensive souvenirs like a six-foot painting of Trump and a signed Tim Tebow helmet, which if kept for himself would violate IRS rules against using charitable funds to benefit private individuals.
“This is nothing more than another left-wing hit job created to distract from Crooked Hillary Clinton’s disastrous week”, he concluded.
Trump campaign spokesman Jason Miller dismissed Schneiderman’s inquiry as politically motivated.
And in another move, the foundation made an illegal US$25,000 donation to a campaign group affiliated with Florida Attorney-General Pam Bondi in 2013 as she was considering joining Mr Schneiderman’s case against Trump University.
A new Hillary Clinton ad blasts Trump for making the “pay-to-play donation” to Bondi while running through the allegations.
Schneiderman mad those remarks Tuesday afternoon to CNN’s Jake Tapper.
POLITICO is reporting Attorney General Eric Schneiderman “has opened an inquiry into the Trump Foundation based on troubling transactions that have recently come to light”.
A look at his donation records via OpenSecrets.org finds Schneiderman has given $12,000 to Democratic candidates and political committees since 1992.
The correspondence begins with a June 9 letter from the attorney general’s office to both Trump’s presidential campaign and his foundation.
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Trump has accused Hillary Clinton and officials of her foundation of giving donors special access to the State Department. The Trump donation to her made headlines once again last week after a watchdog group asked the IRS to investigate. The timing of the Bondi donation was also questioned because it came as her office was looking into whether to join NY and several other states in litigation against Trump University, the candidate’s for-profit business seminars that some former attendees complained were a scam. Charitable organizations like the Trump Foundation are not allowed to contribute to political causes.
