We already knew this, of course. Much of the malfeasance surrounding the Trump Foundation came out during the campaign, thanks to The Post’s hardworking, Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter David Fahrenthold. But back then, less scrupulous media outlets were busily piling synthetic dirt on Clinton’s email server molehill in a vain effort to make it match the elevation of the organic mountain of corruption and sleaze from the Trump campaign, so it didn’t get nearly enough play.
Maybe it will now that NY AG Barbara Underwood filed suit against the Trumps, seeking to shut down the foundation, disburse its assets to legitimate charities, force Trump to pay restitution and ban the Trumps from running other nonprofits in New York. Via Fahrenthold at The Post:
The New York attorney general on Thursday filed suit against President Trump and his three eldest children alleging “persistently illegal conduct” at the president’s personal charity, saying Trump repeatedly misused the nonprofit — to pay off his businesses’ creditors, to decorate one of his golf clubs and to stage a multimillion dollar giveaway at his 2016 campaign events.
In the suit, filed Thursday morning, attorney general Barbara Underwood asked a state judge to dissolve the Donald J. Trump Foundation. She asked that its remaining $1 million in assets be distributed to other charities and that Trump be forced to pay at least $2.8 million in restitution and penalties.
“As our investigation reveals, the Trump Foundation was little more than a checkbook for payments from Mr. Trump or his businesses to nonprofits, regardless of their purpose or legality,” Underwood said in the statement.
Looks like Uday, Qusay and Complicity are party to the suit because they served on the Trump Foundation board without providing the oversight that position requires. Underwood also notified the IRS and FEC, noting in a statement that Trump “willfully and knowingly” used the Trump Foundation to benefit his campaign.
Trump is already howling incoherently about it on Twitter and vowing that he won’t settle. Good. I hope he defies the odds and keeps his word on that; this moldy basket of laundry deserves a public airing.
Elizabelle
Happy Birthday, you asshole fake president.
I hope it’s your last birthday as a free man, or an alive one. Your choice!
dmsilev
Do you think he’ll try to fire the NY AG? I have (a small amount of) pity for the staffer who gets to explain to him that he can’t do that.
The Other Chuck
@dmsilev: Honestly, I hope no one explains it to him.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
is this a civil case as build-up to a criminal prosecution? or is civil pursuit the norm?
Teddys Person
One of the things Dolt45 and his crew are making painfully obvious is that it’s projection all the way down with Republicans. Lock her up! Pay for play in the Clinton Foundation! Emails! The never Trumpers are not so much opposed to the dumb orange one as they wish he’d just shut the fuck up and stop saying (or doing) the quiet parts out loud.
dmsilev
I’m ordinarily not much of a fan of market branding consultants, but clearly there’s one such who charged a Trump foundation large amounts of money for that rebranding, so I must reluctantly award some kudos for that selfless act.
MattF
…and Trump is gaslighting the lawsuit as hard as he can. No links, but you can imagine. Somehow– all those news reports showing it was all lies– Just. Don’t. Matter.
Teddys Person
@dmsilev: Don’t think they go as much for explanations as distractions. Maybe they can get his new BFF Kim to come over for a sleep over tonight.
Calouste
In a democracy, this would result in allies of the politician in question calling for his resignation.
Amir Khalid
@dmsilev:
Whatever Eric paid the consultants to have his foundation renamed “Curetivity” (yick) was way too much.
Kay
I think there are real questions around why the Trumps were never regulated or prosecuted prior to this, and those questions should be directed to NY regulators and prosecutors.
It took a lot of enablers to get him this far.
We need a crack down on white collar crime. By the time the Manafort inquiry is over the real story will be “how is this person not in prison already?” Same for Cohen.
Spanky
@Elizabelle: My goodness! How uncivil!
(Two thumbs up from over here!)
Mike J
It will be interesting when it comes time to build Trump’s presidential library. Always done by a non-profit. Funny if NY won’t let him run one.
WereBear
Rarely do the words “you go, girl!” leaped to my lips with such fervor.
SiubhanDuinne
This made me laugh:
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Kay: I think Yglesias is half-snarking, half-speculating, but it would be irresponsible not to speculate
also makes me wonder if Underwood is looking at the trumpSoHo and the unemployable Large Adult (Middle-Aged) Children again
Omnes Omnibus
@Mike J: Won’t it just be an archive of his Twitter feed?
Teddys Person
@Kay:
Plus the ulitmate get out of jail free card, being wealthy, white and male.
MattF
@Mike J: Somehow… I just don’t think there’s going to be a Trump Library.
Gin & Tonic
@Kay: Some of us have been asking why Manafort isn’t in prison already, for years now.
Chyron HR
No, no, no, you can take GOB and Lindsay, but poor stupid Buster was just a patsy.
Calouste
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: I think, similar to the discussion in the last non World Cup thread, the writer of that first tweet can “at least” go fuck himself.
rp
@Teddys Person: FEMA camps
Gin & Tonic
@Mike J: Florida AG is for rent, though, we know that.
M4
Good stuff.
As I noted below, everybody can continue relaxing since Scheiderman wasn’t some magical lynchpin.
D58826
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: BUT BUT BUT HER E_MAILS> HER E_MAILS. And Bill ofcourse
Kay
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
They need to go to hearing. Don’t let them buy a private resolution. They’re supposedly worried about the “rule of law”. It will only “look” credible is it IS credible. Public. Horrible. Grinding. Humiliating. You know, the legal system everyone else is stuck with. They don’t care about the fines! It’s not a traffic ticket. Don’t let them mail in a payment. No ordinary person would get that.
Mike J
@MattF: There’s a Nixon Library. But it is also true that Trump goes out of his way to destroy evidence, and much of that evidence could also implicate his children.
I can’t imagine that trump wouldn’t want one though. Look at the Reagan library with an airplane in it. He’s going to want to out do that, Maybe get donors to chip in and buy 666 5th Ave and make it the hugest, really it’s going to be great, just the hugest presidential library ever.
WereBear
@Kay: Gee, a bunch of white collar criminals get into office and no one cares to prosecute them. Hmmm hmmm hmmm.
The Ancient Randonneur
@Kay: All it took was one reporter with a spiral bound notebook, a pen and a phone to get the ball rolling.
M4
@Calouste: what’s wrong with what Bouie said?
Omnes Omnibus
@M4: The words “at least.”
JaneE
I thought Trump said he was going to dissolve the foundation back when this first surfaced, probably because it would have been part of the penalty anyway. I guess that didn’t happen.
Kay
@Gin & Tonic:
You have been asking that. It’s a good question. It’s bigger than Trump. For some reason Manafort wasn’t prosecuted. It will turn out that Cohen wasn’t either. We already know Ivanka and one of the brothers weren’t, although there were email records discussing defrauding lenders and investors. We have the harshest justice system in the western world, yet all these criminals have been running around for years.
Spanky
This is what the squid cloud today will be about:
chopper
fantastic! so all this shit ends up out in the open.
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
HAHAHA oh, this is rich. this made my thursday.
rp
@M4: Unlike Wittes’ tweet in the last thread, I think this is an unfair swipe at HRC. Saying “at least” suggests there was some merit to the complaints about the Clinton Foundation. AFAIK, there’s no evidence that it’s anything other than a real charity that does lots of good work.
Calouste
@M4: The implication that the only difference between the two foundations was that the Clinton foundation “at least” did actual charitable work? Or in general, the inability to write about the crimes of Donnie Dementia without getting a dig in at one or more Clintons.
M4
@Omnes Omnibus: ah.
rikyrah
@Kay:
Indeed we do.
Manafort too.
All these muthaphuckas should have been in jail a long time ago.
catclub
@Kay:
yeah, right. We’ll get right on going after possible employers of lawyers, by District attorneys.
No Drought No More
Shout out to David Corn: “Today would be a good day for Robert Mueller to release Donald Trump’s tax returns” heh heh heh…
waysel
@chopper:
Which, in Trumpspeak (constant lies), means he will settle.
SiubhanDuinne
@JaneE:
Going totally from memory here, so may well be wrong, but I think when Trump said he would shut down the foundation, Schneiderman said nope, you can’t, its under investigation now.
hitchhiker
Last night on twitter someone linked to a summer-of-2016 Washington Post story about how the Clinton campaign was using “slippery language” to conflate Trump’s animosity toward undocumented immigrants with bigotry against all non-white people.
The story ended with a comment that from now on they were going to be watching very carefully what came out of Clinton’s mouth, the implication being that she’d lie outright if they (heroic watchdogs!) let her get away with it.
I got dizzy reading that.
The avalanche of bullshit we’re all wallowing in right now is a direct result of their determination to never, ever let Hillary Clinton get away with anything, no matter the cost.
PJ
@Kay: One problem is that many white collar crimes are difficult to prove, particularly where the perpetrators are reasonably smart (i.e., not the Trumps), and while the business is still operational and people are still making money from it, so there is less likelihood of a whistle blower. (The massive fraud and negligence in the mortgage-backed security world could have been investigated before the crash in 2008, but everybody was making so much money . . .) The other thing is that the public is less invested/interested in white collar crime, I’d guess partly because it’s difficult to follow, and partly because they think it doesn’t affect them the way violent crime does.
I’m not excusing the lack of prosecution, but there is so much chicanery out there, particularly in the financial world, and prosecutors want to get wins and they don’t often get public pressure to pursue white collar investigations. Of course, as a presidential candidate, Trump should have gotten much more scrutiny from law enforcement and from journalists, but we know how that went.
Frankensteinbeck
@Teddys Person:
Basically. He’s making it uncomfortably difficult to pretend that the Republican Party isn’t a white supremacy movement, and they themselves aren’t stone racists.
Mai naem mobile
Trumpov is going to stroke out and it’s going to be blamed on liberals and the non FOX MSM going after him. He did not look healthy coming back from Singapore and while in Canada and Singapore either.
JPL
@waysel: If he settles, wouldn’t he have to admit guilt? Because he didn’t pay taxes on the funds, criminal charges could be coming at a later date.
In other words, I have no idea what the orange one will do.
zhena gogolia
@Mai naem mobile:
I don’t care who they blame it on!
Chyron HR
@Mai naem mobile:
But Ronnie J said that Trump’s superior genes will let him live for 5 billion years, and he will lead his children from the solar system to colonize a new Jerusalem among the stars.
MomSense
@MattF:
If there is a Trump library, it will be in a prison.
Mai naem mobile
@Mike J: Can the Trumpov Presidential LiBrady be an extension at Ft. Leavanworth? Do presI dents end up at Leavenworth since they’re the Commanders in Chief? Or maybe it will end up being at Rikers.
Omnes Omnibus
@JPL: Civil suit. Settling a civil suit is not like entering a plea in a criminal case. He could potentially settle with no admission of bad conduct. He could say the suit was a distraction and he settled so that he could concentrate on MAGA.
catclub
@JPL:
you don’t understand white collar crime. The case is settled, there might be a fine, but there is NO admission of wrongdoing.
And the only one who might go to jail is the whistleblower.
Mandalay
Forget the self dealing and the waste; I suspect another part of the story really has legs. From the first page of today’s letter from NY’s AG to the IRS:
cain
If Trump wont’ divest from his businesses, we’ll do it for him! TICK TOCK motherfucker!
catclub
@Mai naem mobile:
I expected that to happen in 2016, when ‘Trump won’t make it to the convention’, was followed by “Trump won’t last through the campaign’
yeah, right.
Teddys Person
@MomSense: Here’s a mock up.
rikyrah
@Mandalay:
YES!!!
JPL
@Omnes Omnibus: Thanks.
boatboy_srq
@Kay: Seems like most of the offenses were more suitable for civil court, and Lord Dampnut has a long history of bringing the biggest baddest law firms to such venues. One of the reasons his legal shenanigans as PEOTUS are so laughable is that he thinks he’s still in civil court territory.
prostratedragon
@Mandalay: Yes, and referrals being made to IRS and Federal Election Commission. Also this allegation:
The press release also lists a roster of legal fire power available to the case. (Edited to try to clean up a tag)
C. Isaac
@Mandalay:
It’s IRS codes that have been sinking organized crime figures since Capone.
ruemara
@Kay: I swear, they’re all such pals in NYC. Even with folks they think are scum, the ruling classes yuck it up together and cannot believe one would be so gauche as to call obvious criminal a criminal. I mean, they’re so fun for their shenanigans & they throw expensive parties that later on you can laugh about their gauche, nasty little upstart behaviour and how thankful you are that you don’t have any child trying to marry one of them.
After years of being wealthy adjacent, that’s how they roll. It only stops if you harm one of the set. Or the American Bon Ton.
@Mai naem mobile: GOOD. I hope it’s catching and while driving a bus with the entire GOP leadership on it.
Litlebritdifrnt
Obvious Donny Dollhands didn’t have any of his “brilliant legal minds” around him today when the lawsuit dropped because if they were they would have pointed out to the great orange turd that claiming that your foundation paid out more money than it took in would put the red flags at the IRS into hyper-drive and every half competent accountant in the Country saying “did no-one check the books, were there even any books?”
C. Isaac
Another thing to consider is how vitally important to the American democracy that the discovery phase of a trial like this is.
In all corruption, the key part of unmasking the full breadth of it is to follow the money and that’s hopefully what they’ll be able to do once they start being allowed to pour through the books of the Foundation and other documentation.
What can / will be found, and how much dirt can get slung onto everyone involved?
Mandalay
@prostratedragon: Right. It looks like the Trump Foundation and Trump’s election campaign were joined at the hip. Funds raised by the Trump Foundation were transformed into donations that were carefully targeted to help get Trump elected.
Gelfling 545
@MomSense: I don’t see how you make a library out of a bunch of sticky notes saying “Don’t congratulate” or “Show empathy”.
Ruckus
@Mike J:
Do you think that after he attempts to turn it into a library/brothel that the neighborhood will soon take on a distinct urine smell?
Calouste
@Litlebritdifrnt: So Donnie Dementia claims that the foundation paid out $400,000 more than it got it, while the NYAG states that it still has $1 million in assets. There’s a $1.4 million discrepancy there, which for an organization that went through $20 million in a decade or two is a massive gap.
Second, for someone who is supposedly worth $10 Billion, $1 million a year in charity, and then large chunks of it other people’s money, is rather embarrassing.
Gelfling 545
@catclub: I’m pretty sure he drinks the blood of the innocent at the time of the full moon to keep going.
Mandalay
@ruemara:
You are dead right. Martin Shkreli and Victor Madoff didn’t go to federal prison because they ripped people off. They went because they made the (literally) unpardonable mistake of ripping off the very, very rich.
Mai naem mobile
@Gelfling 545: Hey, let’s be accurate here, that’s torn up sticky notes put back together by the Archives folks.
catclub
@Calouste:
umm, this guy has no embarassment receptors. He jumped on the stage for big donors for some event, pushing real donors off the stage, and had given nothing. and more along the lines of white collar criminals have it easy, no one spoke up and said “the stage is for real donors, you have to leave it.”
Mai naem mobile
Is NYAG Barbara Underwood related to Frank Underwood?
gene108
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Not sure the norm, but I think it is very hard to prosecute a sitting President for criminal charges. The Paula Jones case did clear the way for a sitting President to be sued in a civil case, so that might be the reason.
Mr. Kite
I think I’m going to fucking stroke out thinking about the difference in coverage of the Clinton and Trump foundations before the election.
cain
@Mandalay:
Donations that were tax free and also without limit. Repurposed for something other than what these donors wanted it for.. OR a money laundering businesses. I wonder if Putin is involved? What a silly question.. of course he is.
MomSense
@Gelfling 545:
Don’t forget the fake magazines with trump’s picture on the cover. And they could always do some paint by numbers of his favorite Renoir.
ETA He’d probably be happy with a box of blank paper to rip up. We know how much he likes stacks of blank paper.
Mnemosyne
@Calouste:
As Republicans love to remind us, we live in a republic, not a democracy.
Gelfling 545
Somewhat OT but in seeking re.ief from politics I have been reading a book about evergreen shrubs and came across this:
“But the only problem is that this particular plant is
just like a brand-new political ideology. You may find it
attractive and well favored in the very beginning. But when it is
placed in unsuitable places, it is going to take on the form of an
ungainly and uncontrollable monster! It is almost impossible to
control it. And sooner or later you will need to take drastic steps
to destroy it!”
There is no escape.
Mandalay
@C. Isaac:
Well this is a good start, from NY’s AG detailing the conduct of the Trump Foundation’s board of directors:
Every sentence of that allegation is brutal.
Poor Don Jr., Eric and Ivanka got some ‘splainin’ to do. My heart bleeds for them.
cain
@Adam – whats going on in Germany? There seems to be some intra-party fighting that might lead to Merkel’s resignation. I think the cause is some kind of thing with refugees.
??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??
@Mnemosyne:
That’s always pissed me off because it’s not true. We’re a representative federal democracy. We don’t just vote on representatives we vote on issues and referendums as well, depending on localities. Preaching to the choir here, but I’m going to have to try that on the next right-winger who tries that.
HeleninEire
@Kay: The answer is really quite simple. I’ve been trying to explain it to my friends here and what I always end up saying is “If you are a rich white man in America you can do anything you want. But you have to keep your head down. The minute your malfeasance becomes public the other rich white men who run the justice system will be forced to prosecute you. Not because they want to but because they want to keep their high power jobs. Trump didn’t keep his head down. Of course if you are a poor black man and sell loosies on the streets of Staten Island. The NYPD will choke you to death.”
Mnemosyne
@Kay:
I think Schneiderman was being blackmailed for his domestic violence and alcoholism/pill addiction. The city DA is dirty, too.
Mnemosyne
@Teddys Person:
“The Good Place” nailed it with one of their demon characters:
Spanky
Rooting for injuries, myself:
Mandalay
In a heart warming spirit of openness, North Korea has been kind enough to release their video of a supine Trump saluting a North Korean general.
A great comment from a CNN analyst on Trump’s behavior:
ruemara
@Mai naem mobile: I hope so. At least in ruthlessness.
@Spanky: I’d be happy to send them daggers & pistols.
@Mnemosyne: I must’ve missed that ep, because that is fucking hilarious.
I’m also out of link ability but, yea & amen, HeleninEire. That is the gospel truth.
Mnemosyne
@Mandalay:
Eric is going to get thrown under the bus by the rest of the family and will probably end up being the only one who goes to jail since Don, Ivanka, and Don Jr will all point the finger at him. That’s his role as the family’s Scapegoat in the sick little narcissist world their father created.
Teddys Person
@Mnemosyne: I have mediocre white man fatigue do to the daily evidence of upward failing and “born on third bas but thought he hit a triple” attitudes.
D58826
@Mr. Kite: You know the MSM could simply take all of the ‘but her e-mails’ and the ‘pay-for-play Clinton foundation’ articles and change the words Clinton to Trump. The only thing they would have to add is an apology to Hillary.
As I watch this unfold there will not be a single institution in our democracy that will not be destroyed.
TenguPhule
@C. Isaac:
This is why they’re gonna settle.
Ohio Mom
@??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??:This is a pet peeve of mine too, I’m wishing you luck.
I’ve never had that specific discussion with a right-winger but I have had others (particularly, the ways in which Social Security differs from Ponzi schemes). There is generally a moment when I can see the confusion in their face as it *almost* occurs to them that their argument is without merit. Then something snaps inside their brain — their defense system against the pain of cognitive dissonance — and that look vanishes.
It takes a strong ego to give up a bad idea, a lot of people can’t manage that.
chopper
@Mandalay:
i’m sure he was holding a piece of paper from his staff reading DO NOT SALUTE.
TenguPhule
Oh sweet FSM. Those are the magic words that trigger the Criminal Audit Division and all the associated tax penalties.
Penalties of 50% of the tax owed. And any state tax auditors can also get in on the bounty.
Tazj
Kyle Chenney@kylechenney
IG found on numerous occasion ,COMEY used a personal GMail account to conduct official FBI business, according to sources briefed on the report.
Ohio Mom
@D58826: Oh c’mon. There are lots and lots of institutions in our democracy, from the local combined fire district on up. They are not all crumbling.
Baud
@Tazj: How reckless!
Teddys Person
@Tazj: This will be Dolt45’s new and improved reason for firing Comey.
MomSense
@Tazj:
My son just texted me this. WTFWTFWTFWTFWTFWTFWTF
I just can’t even.
zhena gogolia
@Tazj:
Oh, God. I have to get off the internet.
D58826
And it gets better. According to Betsy Woodruff on Twitter – Comey used a private e-mail server for FBI business. Head banging on desk repeatedly.
Oh God according to Pete Williams on TV Comey did not know that Huma Abaden was married to Weiner.!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Miss Bianca
@Calouste: Here, here. I am so FUCKING sick of these ostensible lefty allies who just seemingly, reflexively, Can.Not. restrain themselves from throwing some kind of shade on either Clinton(s), or Democrats in general, or both. I’ve had it with feeling like I constantly have to have it thrown in my face that Clinton Derangement Syndrome is so deep that it led to the election of Donald Fucking Trump to any sort of office, much less the most important one in the land. I’ve had it with White America feeling the need to flaunt its collective racist and sexist ass to the rest of America, and the rest of the world. This goes double for the white “progressives” I know whose opinions I used to “at least” respect, if not share.
D58826
@Ohio Mom: Unfortunate most of those do not get the kind of coverage that events in DC gets.
TenguPhule
To the surprise of absolutely nobody here.
TenguPhule
@Elizabelle:
Por qué no ambos?
Mnemosyne
@ruemara:
I know it’s in season 2 where we already know he’s a demon, but I can’t remember which episode. I think it was when they were trying to get through the Bad Place to the judge.
pat
@Gelfling 545:
I can think of several shrubs that would fit that description!
Buckthorn, honeysuckle, just to name two.
catclub
@Gelfling 545: I overhead at a garden center, a plant described as ‘a dreadful spreader’
PPCLI
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: This occurred to me as well, the instant the news came out.
MCA1
@??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??: I can’t stand it when those fucking rightwing clowns throw the “republic” thing out there. First of all, as you point out, we do have direct democracy in some instances. But also, the word “democracy” has a far, far broader meaning than just some Athenian concept. The term encompasses any political system in which the people generally exercise the power to elect governmental representatives (as opposed to an aristocracy, for instance). It’s the active participation of the people in choosing their leaders. Everyone knows this; it’s the vernacular meaning of democracy: free elections.
The word “republic” has a large Venn diagram overlap with “democracy” but it’s actually talking about something different. It means that the political entity itself, i.e. the country, its land and its government, belongs to its inhabitants rather than a monarch.
So the pithy response I usually give is “Wrong. We’re both, and you’re a pedantic douchecanoe.”
Besides, what fucking difference does it make? It’s rare that someone says “democracy” when making a point that’s better made by using “republic.” They’re almost always talking about the electoral process, rather than the fact that we’re not part of England.
Patricia Kayden
@hitchhiker:
Trump’s words reveal that he has animosity towards all non-white people.
rikyrah
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
NO LIE TOLD
MCA1
@TenguPhule: They don’t get to trigger an obligation on the part of the gov’t to settle anything. If the AG wants to take it to trial, she can.
rikyrah
@HeleninEire:
TELL THE TRUTH
trollhattan
@catclub:
Would it be considered a fireable offense to describe Ivanka as “a dreadful spreader”?
Xenos
From the p.o.v of someone working in EU financial services, the appears to be a tremendous amount of corruption and money laundering in the US. And I think the Greeks ate showing more good faith about dealing with tax evasion than the last couple gop administrations.
Peale
@Mnemosyne: and there are lots of wealthy people abusing non profits and foundation rules to hide money in New York State. It’s clear that it’s off limits. Lots of easy money to be made prestending to support literacy or disabled veterans or 9/11 victims.
ruemara
@Xenos: Yes
wjs
@Chyron HR: There is no Michael in the Trump family, that’s for sure.
I'll be Frank
@JaneE: The state wouldn’t let the foundation close while it was under investigation.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
and he still, IIANM, lost money on the Plaza
@Peale: interesting… I wonder how many Manhattan pieds-à-terre and first class flights and who knows what else are paid for or at least subsidized by family foundations
TenguPhule
@Xenos:
Ow, that one stings.
TenguPhule
@trollhattan:
Certainly a dreadful spread.
randy khan
@Mandalay:
I’ve served on two nonprofit boards, and the paragraph about no board meetings since 1999 is just mind-blowing. Of course, I was involved with actual non-profits that have actual charitable missions and try to accomplish those missions, which is pretty much the opposite of the Trump Foundation in every way.
SiubhanDuinne
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Wait WHUT? He paid his kid’s Scout dues out of foundation money and then claimed it as a charitable contribution ⁉️
rikyrah
That’s right, ABL!
When trump was inaugurated, I said I would not give him an inch.
I am still not giving him an inch. Some of y’all are all, “but whut about ✌?peace talks✌? in DPRK.”
Not. A. Single. Inch.
— Imani Gandy? (@AngryBlackLady) June 14, 2018
rikyrah
Particularly heinous: the $2.8mm Trump raised at an event in Iowa in 2016 that was supposed to be for veterans groups, instead went from the Trump Foundation to the Trump campaign.
— Amy Siskind (@Amy_Siskind) June 14, 2018
SiubhanDuinne
@randy khan:
I know, that smacked my gob as well.
ruemara
@SiubhanDuinne: Yeah, that came out during the campaign too.
Peale
@rikyrah: yep. Remember how that group of FBI agents that we think were tied to guiliani were also tied to a veterans scam charity. I think veterans scam charities don’t get a lot of scrutiny that they probably should.
TenguPhule
@SiubhanDuinne:
Yeah, there is no theft too petty for Trump.
Mnemosyne
@rikyrah:
And didn’t he make a big fucking deal about how he was going to raise that money for veterans to make up for his lack of donations in the past?
And then he went and stole it from them anyway, knowing that the MSM wouldn’t bother to check. ??
TenguPhule
@Mnemosyne: Worse. he was called out on it later, allegedly paid the money and now it turns out he only paid out 1/3rd of the money collected.
Mandalay
@randy khan:
Do non-profits not have to record at least an AGM of the board? Or even if the board does meet, is no formal record of that meeting required? As long as you submit your financial details, nobody knows or cares whether any meetings are held?
I guess the board of directors of the Trump Foundation got away without ever meeting is for the same reason dogs lick their balls: because they can.
waysel
@TenguPhule: AAAAND… wasn’t at least one of those ‘Veterans Charities’ a fake thing with no veterans involved run by a grifter in Missouri?
catclub
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
I bet you could claim a lot of those in going to board meetings, but they did not have any board meetings. incompetent in tax chiseling.
burnspbesq
Someone knowingly signed a bunch of materially false 990s. That’s going to get IRS CID into the game.
Somewhere in Beverly Hills, Chuck Rettig (Trump’s nominee for IRS Commish) is projectile vomiting.
Roger Moore
@Kay:
The prosecutors were too busy putting black kids in jail for minor drug crimes to spend the time and effort needed to prosecute complex white collar crimes. While I’m sure punishing and disenfranchising black people has been a far more important motivator for the war on drugs, protecting white collar criminals has certainly been a side benefit.
Boris, Rasputin's Evil Twin
@trollhattan: Spreader of what? Anything coming to my mind is obscene.
sukabi
@dmsilev: he’ll try and do to her what was done to Scheiderman…check and see if there’s any skeletons in her closet and set them free. Blackmail, it’s how they roll.
And yes I know, if there wasn’t anything dirty lurking in their pasts it would be a much harder task to discredit.
randy khan
@Mandalay:
Specific state requirements vary – for instance in D.C., a non-profit has to have an annual meeting, but it’s not necessarily a board meeting. New York has some fairly significant reporting requirements, but as I recall one of the problems with the Trump Foundation was that it didn’t file the reports. I’m not sure if you’re required to report on board meetings or not; although one of the non-profits I’m involved in used to have to file in New York, I don’t recall what the reports included, except for financial stuff.
At the federal level, your 990 has to report how much time board members spent in their roles with the organization.
Bobby Thomson
@trollhattan: Sam Bee told us what she is.
stan
Right. I have yet to have an argument with any right winger who can define a ponzi scheme. They quite literally have no idea what one is, so they cannot talk about any financial issue. Nor do most of them know how social security works. It’s just repetition of slogans.
There’s a clue to their ‘thinking’ in here somewhere……
stan
Well I may be mistaken, but I believe in New York an annual board meeting (minimum of once a year, I should say) is mandatory for a not for profit. At least for the two I’ve been involved with.