N.Y. Attorney General Barbara Underwood Says Trump Foundation Engaged In ‘Persistent Illegality’

As the recent allegations of tax evasion and misrepresentation of financial assets made against the Trump family by the New York Times come to the forefront, President Trump‘s legal problems in New York are starting to pile up.

According to a filing with the New York State Supreme Court on Thursday, the office of New York Attorney General Barbara Underwood has filed a suit against the Donald J. Trump Foundation for “persistent illegality.”

The lawsuit, which was originally filed in June, alleges that Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign illegally used the Trump Foundation as a piggy bank, funneling $2.8 million dollars from the charity in in-kind donations.

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A donation like this would be in violation of New York’s charity laws.

The Trump Foundation, which is headed by President Trump and three of his children, Ivanka, Eric and Donald Jr., had been seeking to dismiss the suit since it was filed earlier this year. But as evidenced by this new filing, it seems as though Attorney General Underwood’s is unwilling to back down to the pressure from the administration.

The suit focuses largely on a fundraiser held at a rally by then-candidate Trump in January 2016. The fundraiser was meant to assist veterans groups. During the rally, Trump had pledged to donate the proceeds to the charities, a promise that Trump claimed to have fulfilled four months later.

The suit alleges that in actuality, the campaign “extensively directed and coordinated the Foundation’s activities,” and that “the foundation ceded control over the grants to the campaign, making an improper in-kind contribution of no less than $2.823 million (the amount donated to the Foundation) to the campaign that provided Mr. Trump and the Campaign a means to take credit at campaign rallies, press briefings, and on the Internet, for gifts to veterans charities.”

Trump responded to the original suit in June by unleashing a pair of tweets where he announced that he would not be settling the case, and attacked former New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman who had resigned a month prior to the tweets after abuse accusations surfaced.

“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,” Trump wrote.

Other allegations raised in the lawsuit include the misuse of funds from the Trump Foundation to settle a lawsuit against Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate for $100,000, and to purchase a portrait of Trump during a charity auction.

The Attorney General’s lawsuit not only seeks to dissolve the foundation, but also aims to temporarily bar Trump and his children from serving in other charities in the state.

Article by Oresti Avlonitis