It took a while, but the Trump Foundation’s shameless self-dealing ultimately undid the president’s so-called charitable organization Tuesday, when the Donald J. Trump Foundation agreed to dissolve itself as part of an agreement with the New York Attorney General’s office. The state attorney general said an investigation into the foundation’s finances uncovered “a shocking pattern of illegality” as the now-president of the United States used the non-profit as a receptacle to accept donations and spend them on things Trump didn’t want to spend his own money on, like schlocky art, Tim Tebow, and Donald Trump Jr.’s childhood.

As part of its dissolution, the foundation will also be required to liquidate the assets it has left, which, in a delicious twist, according to the reporting of David Fahrenthold of the Washington Post, amounts to three items: A Denver Broncos helmet signed by Tim Tebow that Trump bought $12,000 for out of his foundation coffers, and two portraits of the Donald that Trump forked over $30,000 of foundation money for. “Trump now values the three items — for which he spent $42,000 in charity money—at a combined $975, according to a recent IRS filing,” according to the Post.

Some other fun Trumpy expenditures turned up in the AG’s report and the Post’s reporting: “A $264,231 gift to the Central Park Conservancy in 1989 — appeared to benefit Trump’s business: It paid to restore a fountain outside Trump’s Plaza Hotel.” And the best of all: “a $7 foundation gift to the Boy Scouts that same year, appeared to benefit Trump’s family. It matched the amount required to enroll a boy in the Scouts the year that his son Donald Trump Jr. was 11.”</s>President Donald Trump defended his scandal-plagued Trump Foundation personal charity on Wednesday, a day after the New York attorney general announced the nonprofit had agreed to dissolve amid an ongoing investigation into its finances.

“The Trump Foundation has done great work and given away lots of money, both mine and others,” the president tweeted. “Now, as usual, I am getting slammed by [New York Gov. Andrew] Cuomo and the Dems.”

He added: “Will never be treated fairly by these people ― total double standard of ‘justice.’”

The Trump Foundation has done great work and given away lots of money, both mine and others, to great charities over the years - with me taking NO fees, rent, salaries etc. Now, as usual, I am getting slammed by Cuomo and the Dems in a long running civil lawsuit started by..... — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 19, 2018

...sleazebag AG Eric Schneiderman, who has since resigned over horrific women abuse, when I wanted to close the Foundation so as not to be in conflict with politics. Shady Eric was head of New Yorkers for Clinton, and refused to even look at the corrupt Clinton Foundation...... — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 19, 2018

....In any event, it goes on and on & the new AG, who is now being replaced by yet another AG (who openly campaigned on a GET TRUMP agenda), does little else but rant, rave & politic against me. Will never be treated fairly by these people - a total double standard of “justice.” — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 19, 2018

New York Attorney General Barbara Underwood has accused the foundation of engaging in “a shocking pattern of illegality” that included unlawfully coordinating with Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign.

Underwood announced a lawsuit against the Trump Foundation and its board of directors in June, alleging violations of state and federal laws. The legal action sought to dissolve the foundation and bar any of its board members from serving on other New York charity boards.

“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 a statement at the time.</s>It’s entirely possible—and would have been merciful—if you briefly blacked out under the strain of constant Trump scandals unearthed during his presidential campaign, and missed this one. If so, it’s worth rectifying that: Few scandals so better display our president’s venality, his poor business acumen, and his downright weirdness, as the saga of the Tebow gear.

As unearthed in David Fahrenthold’s Pulitzer-winning series of reporting on the scam that is the Trump Foundation, it was revealed that in 2012, Donald Trump won a charity auction for a signed Tim Tebow helmet and jersey. He paid $12,000 for the gear; the check was written out not by Donald Trump himself, but by his own ostensibly charitable organization.

Well, the Trump Foundation is shutting down. On Tuesday, New York Attorney General Barbara Underwood announced a settlement with the foundation in its ongoing suit, which alleges that “the Foundation was little more than a checkbook for payments to not-for-profits from Mr. Trump or the Trump Organization.”

On Tuesday, Underwood said the investigation has uncovered “a shocking pattern of illegality involving the Trump Foundation — including unlawful coordination with the Trump presidential campaign, repeated and willful self-dealing, and much more.”

The lawsuit will continue, but as part of the settlement, the Trump Foundation must dissolve, and distribute its assets to actual charities. That means selling off anything it bought with misused funds, including the Tebow memorabilia.

In fact, Trump did so much self-dealing through his foundation that the assets are being sold off in lots of multiple items. Which leads us to the perfect little coda for this story on President Deals: Trump purchased the Tebow gear on the very same day that Tebow and the Broncos got walloped by the Patriots in the playoffs; the functional end of Tebowmania. The Tebow gear is combined in a lot with two large portraits of Trump—which he also bought with charity money. Together, the foundation spent $42,000 on them. According to the foundation’s most recent tax filings, the items now have a combined value of of $975.</s>The troubled charity foundation has been struggling with legal issues for quite some time.

On Tuesday, it was announced that Donald Trump’s charity foundation will be shutting down. The decision comes after it was alleged that the foundation has been misusing funds. According to BBC News, Barbara Underwood, the attorney general of New York, will supervise the distribution of the charity’s remaining funds.

The Donald J. Trump Foundation is now under the control of Underwood, who will has stated that her office will continue to pursue a lawsuit against the foundation. The lawsuit is seeking $2.8 million in restitution and penalties.

Additionally, Trump and his three oldest children — Donald Trump Jr., Ivanka Trump, and Eric Trump — are all barred from serving on the boards of this or any other New York State charity.

According to the agreement, the charity has 30 days to provide officials with a list of non-profit organizations that can accept the charity’s remaining money Once this has been fulfilled, the Organization will be dissolved under judicial supervision, headed by Underwood’s office.

The lawsuit, which was filed in June of this year, alleged that Trump was using the charity organization to serve his personal and political needs. Underwood later stated that the organization “was little more than a checkbook for payments to not-for-profits from Mr. Trump or the Trump Organization.”

“Mr. Trump used charitable assets to pay off the legal obligations of entities he controlled, to promote Trump hotels, to purchase personal items, and to support his presidential election campaign,” she said in the court filing.

Trump had previously tried to block this lawsuit, arguing that a sitting president cannot be sued. However, that tactic did not work out, and the lawsuit is steaming ahead at full force. And it looks like there may be additional legal ramifications to this situation.

In addition to dissolving the foundation, the New York Attorney General’s office is working with Governor Andrew Cuomo’s Department of Taxation and Finance in order to determine whether there is enough evidence to warrant bringing criminal charges against the organization.

Incoming Attorney General Letitia James will continue to pursue the lawsuit in the coming months, as well as the investigation into criminal charges against the organization.

Trump is believed to have used the organization to fuel his own hopes of becoming president. In 2016, the foundation gave away $3.1 million, more than it did in the three years before and the year following the 2016 Presidential Election.

Trump and the White House have yet to comment on this ruling.</s>US President Donald Trump's troubled charity foundation has agreed to close down amid allegations that he and others illegally misused its funds.

The move was announced by the Attorney General of New York State, Barbara Underwood, who will supervise the distribution of its remaining monies.

She has accused Trump and his three eldest children of using it for private and political gain.

The foundation's lawyer accused her of attempting to politicise the matter.

This is just one of several legal cases currently swirling around Trump and his family. Others include a wide-ranging special counsel investigation into alleged ties between the Trump campaign and Russia headed by former FBI chief Robert Mueller

Underwood said the case against Trump and his children Donald Jr, Ivanka and Eric would continue.

In a statement, she said there had been "a shocking pattern of illegality involving the Trump Foundation - including unlawful co-ordination with the Trump presidential campaign, repeated and wilful self-dealing, and much more".

"This amounted to the Trump Foundation functioning as little more than a chequebook to serve Trump's business and political interests."

Under the terms of the deal to shut down the foundation, Underwood said, it could only be dissolved under judicial supervision and could only distribute its assets "to reputable organisations approved by my office".

She added "This is an important victory for the rule of law, making clear that there is one set of rules for everyone.

"We'll continue to move our suit forward to ensure that the Trump Foundation and its directors are held to account for their clear and repeated violations of state and federal law."</s>(CNN) President Donald Trump's personal charitable foundation has agreed to dissolve under judicial supervision amid an ongoing lawsuit concerning its finances, according to a document filed Tuesday in Manhattan Supreme Court by the New York state Attorney General's office.

The dissolution of the Donald J. Trump Foundation resolves one element of the attorney general's civil lawsuit against the foundation, which includes claims that the President and his three eldest children -- Don Jr., Ivanka and Eric -- violated campaign-finance laws and abused its tax-exempt status. Rather than operating it as a genuine charity, the lawsuit alleges, they instead allowed it to be used "as little more than a checkbook to serve Mr. Trump's business and political interests."

the foundation and Attorney General Barbara Underwood's office, also allows the attorney general's office to review the recipients of the charity's assets. The foundation's The agreement to dissolve , signed by both an attorney forthe foundation and Attorney General Barbara Underwood's office, also allows the attorney general's office to review the recipients of the charity's assets. Thefoundation's most recent tax return listed its net assets at slightly more than $1.7 million.

The closure of Trump's nonprofit comes amid an escalation in the litany of criminal and other investigations touching almost every corner of Trump's business and political operations, including his presidential campaign, his inauguration committee and his family real estate business.

The lawsuit against the charity is one of two cases in which the President himself is accused of wrongdoing after federal prosecutors said in court filings earlier this month that Trump directed his former attorney, Michael Cohen, to make or orchestrate payments during the 2016 election to silence women who claimed sexual encounters with Trump. Trump has denied those claims.

Read More</s>The Donald J. Trump Foundation agreed to be dissolved on Tuesday after it was accused of acting “in a persistently illegal manner” by the New York Attorney General’s Office.

The foundation is accused by the attorney general in a lawsuit—and in multiple news stories—of using charity funds to settle private business matters, coordinating between the foundation and Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign, and making an illegal and undisclosed contribution to a political action committee.

“Our petition detailed a shocking pattern of illegality involving the Trump Foundation – including unlawful coordination with the Trump presidential campaign, repeated and willful self-dealing, and much more. This amounted to the Trump Foundation functioning as little more than a checkbook to serve Mr. Trump’s business and political interests,” Attorney General Barbara Underwood said in a statement. “This is an important victory for the rule of law, making clear that there is one set of rules for everyone.”

In a stipulation signed by foundation attorney Alan Futerfas, the foundation agreed to dissolve and within 30 days submit to the court a list of not-for-profit organizations to receive its remaining assets.

The stipulation follows a decision last month to allow for Underwood’s suit against the Trump Foundation to proceed. The lawsuit seeks $2.8 million in restitution plus penalties, as well as a ban on Trump from future service as a director of a New York not-for-profit for ten years. It also seeks the same ban for a year for Trump’s children, Donald Jr., Ivanka, and Eric, who all are foundation board members.

The lawsuit filed in June alleged that the foundation had illegally intervened “in Mr. Trump's campaign for president in 2016 by, among other things, making expenditures during the first five months of 2016 that were intended to influence his election for president.”

The A.G.’s office documented coordination between the campaign and the foundation, including an instance in which then-Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski requested that an official with the foundation give out grant money in Iowa in order to help the campaign win the state’s caucus.

Additionally, the lawsuit discusses a widely publicized veterans fundraiser in Des Moines held by the Trump Foundation, but allegedly staffed by the campaign, which “planned, organized, financed, and directed" it.

“The Fundraiser, which solicited donations from members of the public, including New York residents, reaped approximately $5.6 million in tax free donations,” the suit reads. “Of that total, $2.823 million was contributed to the Foundation.”

The complaint also said that in 2013, the Trump Foundation illegally donated $25,000 to a political action committee supporting the campaign of Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi. In its tax filing, it left out the contribution and instead listed a fictitious contribution to a similarly named non-profit outfit in Kansas.

The suit followed reporting throughout 2016 by the Washington Post and other outlets detailing how the foundation was used as Trump’s personal piggybank.</s>ALBANY, N.Y. – President Donald Trump's charity will shut down and its remaining assets distributed to other nonprofit organizations as part of an agreement filed Tuesday by New York Attorney General Barbara Underwood.

The stipulation between the Donald J. Trump Foundation and Underwood's office calls for the charity to dissolve under judicial supervision, wiping out its certificate of incorporation and ending its existence.

It comes after Underwood, a Democrat, filed a lawsuit against Trump, a Republican, in June, accusing the charity of a wide array of law-breaking over the last decade and Trump of illegally using it to boost his presidential campaign in 2016.

Once signed by a judge, the Trump Foundation and Underwood's office would have 30 days to submit a plan to disperse the charity's assets to other nonprofits.

The foundation had assets totaling $1.8 million at the end of 2017, according to its tax forms.

"Under the terms, the Trump Foundation can only dissolve under judicial supervision – and it can only distribute its remaining charitable assets to reputable organizations approved by my office," Underwood said in a statement.

An attorney for the Trump Foundation called Underwood's statement "misleading" and "inaccurate," noting the Foundation first began winding down its operations in 2016 – when then-Attorney General Eric Schneiderman began investigating it.

“Contrary to (Underwood's) misleading statement issued earlier today, the Foundation has been seeking to dissolve and distribute its remaining assets to worthwhile charitable causes since Donald J. Trump’s victory in the 2016 Presidential election," the attorney, Alan Futerfas, said in a statement.

Underwood's office has been jostling in court with the Trump Foundation since originally filing the lawsuit, which seeks to force Trump and his family to pay $2.8 million in restitution.

The lawsuit took particular issue with the Trump Foundation's January 2016 fundraiser for veterans organizations, which came in the days before the Iowa caucuses.

Nov. 23: N.Y. Supreme Court clears the way for state lawsuit against Trump Foundation

Aug. 24: Trump Foundation: How New York's growing case could impact the president

According to Underwood's office, the event was largely directed by Trump's campaign staff, which directed where the funds went. The oversized checks presented to recipients had Trump's "Make America Great Again" campaign slogan emblazoned on the bottom.

The foundation is registered in New York, where state law prohibits charities from participating in political events.

Schneiderman began investigating the foundation in 2016 amid questions raised by the Washington Post and other media outlets about whether the charity was engaged in unethical or illegal practices.

The investigation helped prevent the foundation from shutting down while the probe was ongoing.

The lawsuit also took issue with the Trump Foundation's structure, noting its board of directors was essentially non-existent, having not met since 1999.

It also accused the foundation of "improper self-dealing" by settling a pair of lawsuits against Trump-owned businesses with funds from the charity.

In one instance, a dispute over a hole-in-one contest at the Trump National Golf Club in Briarcliff Manor in Westchester County, New York, was settled in part with a $158,000 payment from the Trump Foundation to a foundation run by Martin Greenberg, the golfer at the center of the dispute.

Other examples cited in the lawsuit include a $5,000 advertisement purchased by the Trump Foundation in the program for the DC Preservation League's 2014 gala. The ad, which Trump reimbursed the foundation for after the investigation began, promoted a Trump hotel.

June 14: Five takeaways from New York's Trump Foundation lawsuit

Underwood vowed to continue with the lawsuit despite the charity dissolving.

"We’ll continue to move our suit forward to ensure that the Trump Foundation and its directors are held to account for their clear and repeated violations of state and federal law," she said in a statement.

Trump himself is a defendant in the case, as are the Trump Foundation and three of his children: Ivanka, Eric and Donald Trump Jr.

The lawsuit also seeks to ban Trump and his three eldest children from serving on the boards of other New York charities.

When the suit was filed in June, Trump suggested it was politically motivated, pointing to now-former Attorney General Eric Schneiderman, a frequent Trump foe who stepped down in May after he was accused of physically abusing women.

"I won't settle this case," Trump tweeted at the time.

In his statement Tuesday, Futerfas, the attorney representing the Trump Foundation, said the charity remains proud of its efforts, claiming it distributed approximately $19 million to 700 charitable organizations.

"The NYAG’s inaccurate statement of this morning is a further attempt to politicize this matter," Futerfas said.</s>NEW YORK– The Donald J. Trump Foundation has agreed to dissolve under judicial supervision amid an ongoing lawsuit concerning its finances, according to a document filed Tuesday in Manhattan Supreme Court by the New York state Attorney General’s office.

The dissolution of President Donald Trump’s charity resolves one element of the attorney general’s civil lawsuit against the foundation, which includes claims that the President and his children violated campaign finance laws and abused its tax-exempt status. The lawsuit will continue in court because it also seeks two other outcomes: $2.8 million in restitution, plus penalties, and a ban on Trump and his three eldest children serving on the board of any other New York nonprofit.

The agreement to dissolve, signed by both the foundation and Attorney General Barbara Underwood’s office, also allows the attorney general’s office to review the recipients of the charity’s assets. The most recent tax return filed by the foundation listed its net assets at slightly more than $1.7 million.

“Our petition detailed a shocking pattern of illegality involving the Trump Foundation — including unlawful coordination with the Trump presidential campaign, repeated and willful self-dealing, and much more. This amounted to the Trump Foundation functioning as little more than a checkbook to serve Mr. Trump’s business and political interests,” Underwood said in a statement Tuesday.

“This is an important victory for the rule of law, making clear that there is one set of rules for everyone,” Underwood said. “We’ll continue to move our suit forward to ensure that the Trump Foundation and its directors are held to account for their clear and repeated violations of state and federal law.”

The Trump Foundation did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The judge overseeing the lawsuit must approve the stipulation in order for it to go into effect and will oversee the dissolution of the foundation. The stipulation comes after a November ruling by Justice Saliann Scarpulla that allowed the lawsuit to move forward, denying a motion by the foundation to dismiss the case.</s>NEW YORK - President Trump's foundation, The Trump Foundation, has agreed to shut down amid an ongoing lawsuit, NBC News reports.

The lawsuit includes claims Trump and his family violated campaign finance laws and abused its tax-exe,pt status, according to documents filed in Manhattan Supreme Court on Tuesday.

New York attorney general said the lawsuit against the Trump Foundation will still move forward amid the dissolution under judicial supervision and with the oversight of the attorney general's Charities Bureau.

“Our petition detailed a shocking pattern of illegality involving the Trump Foundation – including unlawful coordination with the Trump presidential campaign, repeated and willful self-dealing, and much more."
The Donald J. Trump Foundation agrees to dissolve under judicial supervision while a lawsuit in the state of New York is ongoing.