A judge ordered President Trump to pay $2 million to settle a lawsuit that alleged he used his former charity for personal and political benefit.
The lawsuit filed by the New York state attorney general’s office in June 2018 alleged that Trump and his three eldest children — Donald Trump Jr., Ivanka, and Eric — improperly used the Trump Foundation to settle business disputes and help his presidential campaign.
The settlement comes nearly a year after Trump agreed to dissolve the charity and distribute the remaining assets to other charities under the supervision of the attorney general’s office.
Trump vowed last year that he would not settle the case.
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. I won’t settle this case!…
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 14, 2018
“No one is above the law,” Letitia James, the state attorney general, tweeted Thursday.
BREAKING: We’ve secured a court order forcing President Trump to pay $2M in damages after admitting to illegally using the Trump Foundation to help him intervene in the 2016 presidential election and further his own political interests.
No one is above the law.
— NY AG James (@NewYorkStateAG) November 7, 2019
The Trumps are alleged to have used charity funds to pay legal settlements for Trump’s private business, purchase art for one of his golf clubs, and fund giveaways for his presidential campaign at Iowa rallies.
Trump formed the charity in 1988. The largest donation in its history, a $264,231 gift to the Central Park Conservancy in 1989, went to restore a fountain outside the Plaza Hotel when Trump owned it, according to the Washington Post.
It made its smallest donation that same year. The foundation paid $7 to the Boy Scouts, which was the same cost as yearly enrollment in the organization. Trump’s eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., was 11 at the time.
Trump also used $25,000 of the charity’s funds to make a political donation to Florida’s Republican Attorney General Pam Bondi, who is reportedly joining the White House communications team to work on impeachment.
The political donation was not filed as such with the IRS, which is required by law. It was instead listed as a gift to an unrelated charity in Kansas. Trump’s team blamed the matter on an accounting mistake.
[Opinion: The Trump Foundation and abuse of both power and privilege]
During the 2016 election, Trump raised more than $2 million at an Iowa fundraiser that was given to his campaign. Prosecutors alleged Trump’s campaign manager Corey Lewandowski decided how the money was used days before the Iowa caucuses.
UPDATE: Trump responded to the settlement later Thursday, accusing the attorney general of “deliberately mischaracterizing this settlement for political purposes.”
Trump said he was “happy” to donate $2 million split between seven charities, including Army Emergency Relief; Martha’s Table, United Negro College Fund; United Way of Capital Area; City Meals on Wheels; the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum; Children’s Aid Society; and Give an Hour.
STATEMENT FROM PRESIDENT DONALD J. TRUMP pic.twitter.com/EktztHfLk6
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 8, 2019
