With Hillary's poll numbers slumping, something had to be done and New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman, a Democrat who publicly supports Hillary Clinton, has opened an investigation into the Donald J. Trump Foundation “to make sure it’s complying with the laws governing charities in New York."
Something had to be done…
As The Hill reports, The Donald J. Trump Foundation is coming under increasing media pressure for misreporting a number of donations and using its money in a questionable fashion.
Schneiderman reportedly told CNN’s “The Lead” on Tuesday that his interest in Trump's foundation connects with his role "as regulator of nonprofits in New York state."
"We have been concerned that the Trump Foundation may have engaged in some impropriety from that point of view,” Schneiderman reportedly said on CNN.
“We’ve inquired into it and we’ve had correspondence with them. I didn’t make a big deal out of it or hold a press conference," he added.
"We have been looking into the Trump Foundation to make sure it's complying with the laws governing charities in New York.”
Politico reported that "a source familiar with the matter" confirmed that the New York Attorney General’s office “has opened an inquiry into the Trump Foundation based on troubling transactions that have recently come to light.”
Schneiderman made an enemy of Trump when he began aggressively pursuing fraud allegations against Trump University. Yahoo News reported last week that Trump's nonprofit donated $100,000 to a conservative group that was suing Schneiderman as he was investigating the real estate education venture.
President Obama sharpened the national focus on Trump's foundation when he made a mockery of the charity in a Tuesday campaign speech on behalf of Hillary Clinton.
Trump’s charity has face growing questions in the wake of a damaging series of stories by the Washington Post and the AP.
A Washington Post story published over the weekend cited tax records showing that Trump had not donated to his own foundation since 2008, and had among other allegations had "spent $20,000 of money earmarked for charitable purposes to buy a six-foot-tall painting of himself.
The foundation also made an illegal donation to Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi in 2013 as she was considering joining Schneiderman in pursuing a fraud case against Trump University. Bondi and Trump have denied any connection between the donation and her office's decision not to pursue an investigation, though Trump paid a $2,500 penalty to the IRS for making a political donation through his charitable foundation.
While Schneiderman, a Democrat who supports Hillary Clinton, has said that his suit against Trump University is not politically motivated, the New York attorney general has not shied away from publicly discussing the case. In a June interview with ABC's "Good Morning America," Schneiderman said the real estate seminar was "really a fraud from beginning to end" and "just a scam."
And now we have a 'distraction' – real or not – from the health concerns surrounding Hillary Clinton. One wonders if the sudden appearance of this probe of "troubling transactions" was meant as ammunition for later in the campaign… especially given the DNC's raging concerns over the next leaked emails…
The DNC is bracing itself for the release of more documents http://pic.twitter.com/y1uVz8jUW9
— WikiLeaks (@wikileaks) September 13, 2016
via http://ift.tt/2ckq0q6 Tyler Durden