The Foundations Of Corruption
The Donald J. Trump Foundation has agreed to be dissolved in a deal with the Attorney General of New York. The agreement was a result of a suit brought by the AG accusing the foundation of wide-ranging violations of self-dealing, campaign finance laws, and coordinating with the Trump presidential campaign. The suit, which will continue even after this dissolution of the Foundation, seeks nearly $3 million in restitution and to bar Trump himself from serving in any executive role in a foundation for ten years as well as barring Don Jr., Ivanka, and Eric from serving in the same capacity in any New York foundation for one year. Trump and the members of his family could also be subject to millions of dollars in additional penalties.
According to the AG, the Trump Foundation functioned “as little more than a checkbook to serve Mr. Trump’s business and political interests”, engaging in “a shocking pattern of illegality” that included illegal coordination with the Trump election campaign. While the current case is merely civil, the Foundation and its board are still clearly exposed to criminal charges involving tax evasion and campaign finance violations.
David Fahrenthold clearly documented the atrocities of the Trump Foundation during the 2016 campaign. The Foundation had no set standards for how its money would be distributed and the board, which mainly consisted of Trump’s family, had not met in nearly two decades. The listed treasurer of the Foundation was unaware that he actually held that role.
From the self-dealing as petty as using Foundation money to buy portraits of Trump himself or paying Barron’s Boy Scout fee, to using the Foundation to pay liens against the Trump Organization, to making undisclosed contributions to Florida AG Pam Bondi’s campaign and coincidentally having the state drop out of the Trump University lawsuit shortly afterword, the Trump Foundation ran the full gamut of illegal activity. Remarkably, much of the money that flowed out of the Foundation never came from the Trumps at all but were actually donations from others who were mostly seeking to ingratiate themselves with Trump himself.
That became even clearer with the initial filing of this ongoing suit which shows that the Foundation was merely an arm of the Trump organization that not only flouted reporting rules for non-profits but also became an arm of the Trump campaign for President. The proceeds from Trump’s Iowa campaign event, billed as a fundraiser for veterans through the Trump Foundation, were actually controlled by then campaign manager Corey Lewandowski who doled out political favors with that money in return for support for Trump’s primary campaign.
While the Trump Foundation may just one part of Trump’s ongoing criminal enterprises, he is not alone in the Republican party for using a charity to illegally bolster his 2016 political campaign. In Missouri, an up-and-coming Republican, Eric Greitens, successfully ran for governor, largely on his reputation both as a Navy Seal and his philanthropic work. Greitens ran a charity for veterans called the “The Mission Continues” whose goal was to “challenge veterans to serve and lead in communities across America”. It was from that position that he launched his gubernatorial campaign.
In order to help the effort, Greitens apparently stole the donor list from The Mission Continues and used it to help fundraise for his own campaign. He fraudulently got the charity to provide him with the list three times, initially when he left the charity in order to officially begin his campaign and supposedly wanted to reach out to donors explaining the charity’s change in leadership, and then again, when he supposedly wanted to send out Christmas cards. The last time, he directed for a former associate within the charity to send the list to his two top campaign advisors. In addition, Greitens continued to align himself with the charity even after he had officially left it in order to boost his campaign fundraising.
When questions about the stolen donor list surfaced shortly before his election, Greitens fabricated a story that a senior Greitens’ campaign advisor had supplied the donor list as a contribution to the Greitens’ campaign, which valued the list at $600. That story allowed Greitens to settle an ethics committee investigation.The reality is that Greitens had directed the list be sent to that staffer and the campaign used it frequently during the campaign.
The end of the ethics inquiry, however, did not end the investigation and eventually the state’s Attorney General, now Senator Josh Hawley, charged Greitens with felonies relating to the donor list. By that time, Greitens’ political career was already in serious jeopardy when a woman with whom he admitted having an affair accused him of tying her up against her will and then taking pictures of her naked, presumably to ensure she would remain silent about the affair. Eventually, Greitens was force to resign in disgrace.
I have previously written about these two foundations in a broader story about how foundations are being abused for corporate and political interests in the wake of the Citizens United ruling. But there is particular irony in these two stories. There were so many inexplicable editorial decisions made during the 2016 campaign, with the reporting on foundation corruption being one of them. There was far more ink wasted on breathlessly reported nothingburgers about the Clinton Foundation (I’m looking at you, NY Times) when Fahrenthold was uncovering the actual criminality with the Trump Foundation that was indicative of Trump as a whole. Yet, it is apparent that the only criminal charges related to foundation activity in the 2016 campaign will involve Republicans.