Donald Trump’s personal charity foundation is to be the subject of an inquiry by NY attorney general Eric Schneiderman, according to the Guardian.
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The foundation is being investigated to make sure it’s complying with NY laws governing charities, Attorney General Eric Schneiderman said.
The person familiar with the NY attorney general’s investigation said that inquiry would also examine an incorrect tax return, filed by the Trump Foundation in 2013, which omitted the prohibited gift to Bondi and included a nonexistent gift in its place. “And we have been concerned that the Trump Foundation may have engaged in some impropriety from that point of view”.
Democratic members of the House Judiciary Committee signed a letter Tuesday calling for a Justice Department investigation into a Trump Foundation donation to Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi that may have headed off a fraud investigation of Trump University.
Recent investigative reports found “Trump’s foundation appears to have repeatedly broken IRS rules”.
The Washington Post’s David Farenthold has reported that Trump used foundation money to purchase gifts for himself, and the foundation misreported a number of donations.
In a response on July 25, the Trump Foundation said that the contribution was “mistakenly made from the Foundation” and instead came from Trump’s personal funds.
Other questions by the attorney general had to do with the Trump Foundation supposedly paying $20,000 for a six-foot-tall portrait of Trump and four separate charities reportedly claiming they never received donations that the foundation said it gifted them.
One of those letters of correspondence from the Attorney General’s office to the Trump Foundation was shared by NBC’s Katy Tur.
Clinton said: “I just didn’t think it was going to be that big a deal”. Both Bondi and Trump have denied any wrongdoing, saying the donation did not lead to any favors.
The attorney general – who is a known supporter of Hillary Clinton – has previously sued the real estate mogul and his now defunct Trump University for fraud.
The New York lawsuit also comes at a time when Democrats are hopeful to get mileage from an embarrassing mistake that the Trump Foundation made in 2013.
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The investigation into the Donald J. Trump Foundation is the latest tangle between Trump and Schneiderman, a Democrat who supports Hillary Clinton. With polls tightening, though, the Trump campaign pushed back.
