Tag: trump foundation
Pam Bondi

Pam Bondi’s Convention Performance Reached New Level Of Absurdity

Reprinted with permission from Alternet


WATCH: Pam Bondi's speech during the Republican National Conventionwww.youtube.com


You might have thought it would be hard to outdo the absurdity of Kimberly Guilfoyle screaming at the top of her lungs to an empty auditorium on the opening night of the Republican National Convention. But on Tuesday, former Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi reached new heights of absurdity in the second night of the event in a speech filled with unfettered hypocrisy.

Bondi returned to a theme of the Trump campaign that has largely been absent from the convention thus far: Joe Biden's supposed corruption. As one of Trump's lawyers during the impeachment trial, she tried to press the case against Biden at the center of the president's high crimes. Trump tried to get Ukraine to investigate allegations that Biden, as vice president, corruptly sought to have a Ukrainian prosecutor fired to protect his son, who was working on the board of the energy company Burisma in the region.

The allegations against the Bidens have been repeatedly debunked. It was Trump's demand that Ukraine investigate the matter that was deemed impeachable by the Democratic-led House of Representatives. Even one Senate Republican, Mitt Romney, agreed.

Nevertheless, Bondi had the gall to stand up at the RNC and deliver attacks on Biden that have been thoroughly debunked and scrutinized during the impeachment trial. Much of the information used to attack Biden was false Russian propaganda.

It's even worse than that, though. While she accused the Bidens of corruption, she stands credibly accused of a stark act of corruption herself — one that happens to involve Trump.

Here's what we know: In 2013, Trump donated $25,000 to Bondi's campaign as attorney general. Subsequently, she decided not to join a lawsuit filed by multiple states against Trump University, despite the fact that Florida residents had brought complaints to her office. It also turned out that the donation was illegal because the Trump Foundation cannot donate to political candidates; Trump said he paid $2,500 to the IRS to make up for the error. Trump would later settle that case brought by other states for $25 million.

It is, at the very best, a clear case of the appearance of corruption. It was certainly illegal. It may, in fact, have been the pure pay-for-play, quid pro quo, that it appears to have been. But regardless, the confirmed facts of the matter should be enough to make Bondi ashamed to associate with Trump ever again, and vice versa. Yet both have proved shameless.

But Bondi's performance is worse still. Because while she was railing against Biden for supposedly acting improperly with foreign governments, she has recently registered as a foreign agent of Qatar, a government that has been caught in its own corruption scandals. Under normal circumstances, a foreign agent working so closely for the president would be treated as a major scandal.

"I fought corruption and I know what it looks like, whether it's done by people wearing pinstripe suits or orange jumpsuits," she said, without a sense of irony. "But, when you look at Biden's 47-year career in politics, the people who benefited are his family members, not the American people."

This line was particularly egregious, given the fact that Trump's family members have been deeply involved in his administration. His daughter Ivanka Trump and son-in-law Jared Kushner have high-ranking White House jobs, despite not having any qualifications for the roles. They have made millions on the side while serving in the administration. And while Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump were supposedly going to run the Trump Organization separately so as to avoid any conflicts of interest for the president, they have become prominent spokespeople for the Trump campaign. Both have had speaking roles at the RNC; Eric appeared shortly after Bondi.

And on top of all that, the president has been widely denounced for his use of federal government lands and buildings in service of the convention, blurring the lines between the administration and his campaign in a way that likely violates the Hatch Act.

So for Bondi to stand before the GOP and American people and attack Biden with charges of corruption, exploiting his government position, foreign entanglements, and nepotism, while ignoring much more egregious evidence implicating herself and the Trumps, was a startling act chutzpah.

Trump Speaks At Parade Despite Misuse Of Veterans’ Charity

Trump Speaks At Parade Despite Misuse Of Veterans’ Charity

Trump praised veterans and Gold Star military families during an event in New York on Monday, just days after a court ordered him to pay $2 million for misusing charitable funds intended for veterans for personal and political gain.

“To every Gold Star family, we will stand by your side forever,” Trump told attendees at New York City’s Veterans’ Day Parade.

Later in the speech, Trump praised the military as “the greatest warriors to ever walk the face of the earth,” adding, “Our veterans risk everything for us. Now it is our duty to serve and protect them every single day of our lives.”

“You are the reason our hearts swell with pride, our foes tremble with fear, and our nation thrives in freedom,” he said.

Monday afternoon, the White House issued a statement of commitment to veterans, saying Trump was “working tirelessly” to protect resources and aid for “American heroes.”

Trump was sued last year by New York’s attorney general, who alleged that Trump and his family had misused millions of dollars in charity donations for personal gain, including purchasing a portrait of himself and paying off debt.

The two sides reached a settlement last month, which was announced on Thursday last week.

In documents from the settlement, Trump admitted that his now-defunct charitable organization, the Trump Foundation, had handed over control to his political campaign to manage and disburse $2.8 million in donations from a 2016 fundraiser for military veterans.

As the New York Times noted, Trump “also admitted to using the foundation to settle the legal obligations of companies he owned, including Mar-a-Lago, his private club in Florida, and the Trump National Golf Club in Westchester County, N.Y.”

“Mr. Trump’s fiduciary duty breaches included allowing his campaign to orchestrate the fundraiser, allowing his campaign, instead of the Foundation, to direct distribution of the funds, and using the fundraiser and distribution of the funds to further Mr. Trump’s political campaign,” New York State Supreme Court Justice Saliann Scarpulla wrote last week, announcing the settlement.

Scarpulla ordered Trump to pay $2 million for his misuse of the military. The money will go to various charities.

In addition to misusing funds meant for veterans, Trump has also attacked the very kind of Gold Star families he praised during Monday’s Veteran’s Day event.

During the 2016 campaign, Trump attacked the family of Captain Humayun Khan, a Muslim soldier who died fighting for the U.S. Army in Iraq.

After Khan’s parents, Khizr and Ghazala Khan, spoke and appeared at the Democratic convention, Trump went after them, claiming that Ghazala Khan was not allowed to speak at the event because of her Muslim faith.

Trump also said Khizr Khan was wrong to say Trump had not sacrificed for the country because he employed “thousands and thousands of people.”

Trump attacked yet another Gold Star family in October 2017, after taking office.

Army Sgt. La David Johnson was killed in an ISIS-led ambush in Niger along with three other Special Forces troops.

During a telephone conversation with Johnson’s widow, Myeshia Johnson, Trump told the grieving woman that her husband “knew what he signed up for.”

When the family went public about those remarks, Trump slammed Rep. Frederica Wilson (D-FL), a friend of the family who helped to publicize the slight. Trump referred to the congresswoman as “wacky” and his then-chief of staff John Kelly lied about remarks Wilson had made in the past.

Published with permission of The American Independent.

IMAGE: Donald Trump addresses the media regarding donations to veterans foundations at Trump Tower in Manhattan,. 2016

Trump Complains: ‘I’ve Been Attacked For Giving $19M To Charity’

Trump Complains: ‘I’ve Been Attacked For Giving $19M To Charity’

Donald Trump released a statement on Thursday, after agreeing to pay $2 million to settle a lawsuit against his now-defunct namesake foundation, complaining that he had been “attacked by political hacks” for donating $19 million to charity.

“I am the only person I know, perhaps the only person in history,” he claimed, “who can give major money to charity ($19M), charge no expense, and be attacked by political hacks in New York State. No wonder why we are all leaving!”

Trump recently declared himself a resident of Florida, after decades as a New Yorker. According to the New York Times, a source close to Trump said the change was for tax purposes.

The president added on Thursday that “every penny of the $19 million raised by the Trump Foundation went to hundreds of great charitable causes” and that contrary to the claims of the New York attorney general’s office, his foundation was only guilty of “some small technical violations, such as not keeping board minutes.”

He was ordered this week to pay out $2 million to several charitable groups after he admitted to misusing money raised by his foundation.

Like more than 13,000 of the other false or misleading claims Trump has made since taking office, his argument this week that he himself paid $19 million to charity is dubious at best.

According to a Pulitzer-winning Washington Posanalysis, just $5.5 million of the money raised by the Donald J. Trump Foundation actually came from Trump (though a spokesperson claimed Thursday that “more than $9 million came directly from” Trump). He stopped donating to the foundation completely in 2008 and instead relied on millions in donations from other rich people — including his first Small Business Administrator, Linda McMahon.

While some of the foundation’s money did go to worthwhile causes, Trump also used it as a his personal piggy bank to fund things like a $264,631 renovation for a fountain outside one of his hotels, legal settlements for his for-profit companies, a portrait of himself, and a $7 payment to the Boy Scouts of America (which was the cost of membership at the time). He often used the foundation to make charitable donations he claimed were coming out of his personal funds.

In 2016, the foundation admitted to the Internal Revenue Service that it had engaged in illegal “self-dealing.” The same year, his legal team claimed an “unfortunate series of coincidences” lead to an illegal and undisclosed $25,000 political donation in support of then-Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi (R).

The foundation gave much of its money for political purposes, including two $10,000 donations to Project Veritas, James O’Keefe’s tax-exempt conservative group known for producing misleading “sting” videos, often with a pro-Trump message. It ceased operations in December 2016 after the New York attorney general filed suit alleging improper dealings.

Contrary to Trump’s claims of minor technical violations, a judge found he illegally used his foundation to further his 2016 political campaign — a huge no-no for tax-exempt 501(c)(3) charitable organizations — and pay business debts. As part of the settlement, Trump admitted to these violations of the law.

A 1999 examination by The Smoking Gun called Trump “The .00013% Man” based on the Trump Foundation’s “paltry” charitable giving. A 2011 follow-up found that contrary to Trump’s claims of being an “ardent philanthropist,” from 1990 to 2009, Trump donated just $3.7 million to his foundation compared to the “seven billion” he claimed to have in his bank account, making him perhaps “the least charitable billionaire in the United States.”

Published with permission of The American Independent.

IMAGE: Donald Trump addresses the media regarding donations to veterans foundations at Trump Tower, May 31, 2016. REUTERS/Lucas Jackson

 

New York State Investigations Elicit Whining From Trump  On Twitter

New York State Investigations Elicit Whining From Trump On Twitter

Trump attacked the entire state of New York on Monday because he and his family face multiple investigations there for a range of potential illegal activities.

In a series of three tweets sent in the early afternoon, Trump whined about his corrupt foundation, the cost of living in New York, and how much money his family has to spend on lawyers because of the many investigations into their alleged wrongdoing:

“It is very hard and expensive to live in New York. Governor Andrew Cuomo uses his Attorney General as a bludgeoning tool for his own purposes. They sue on everything, always in search of a crime, I even got sued on a Foundation which took Zero rent & expenses & gave away more money than it had. … Now Cuomo’s A.G. is harassing all of my New York businesses in search of anything at all they can find to make me look as bad as possible. So, on top of ridiculously high taxes, my children and companies are spending a fortune on lawyers. No wonder people and businesses are fleeing New York in record numbers!”

Trump, his family, and his businesses are facing legal trouble from the state of New York on multiple fronts.

At the end of 2018, Trump was forced to shutter his namesake foundation after prosecutors alleged “repeated and willful” acts of corruption. New York’s attorney general filed a lawsuit last year accusing Trump and three of his adult children (Eric, Don Jr., and Ivanka) of engaging in “persistently illegal conduct” while running the foundation and seeking $2.8 million in restitution.

In March, the state of New York issued subpoenas for Deutsche Bank and Investors Bank, two banks closely associated with the Trump Organization. New York Attorney General Letitia James is demanding information about applications, mortgages, and lines of credit for Trump properties in Washington D.C., Doral, Florida, and Chicago, as well as Trump Park Avenue.

While the investigation is civil, not criminal, the attorney general has the power to levy fines and even ask a court to dissolve an organization that repeatedly engages in corrupt and illegal activities.

In his tweets, Trump also attacked former New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman for his “abuse against women” — a shockingly hypocritical remark, as Trump himself has both admitted to being a sexual predator and has seen more than a dozen women corroborate it with accusations ranging from sexual assault to rape.

When he testified before Congress earlier this year, Trump’s longtime attorney Michael Cohen accused Trump of breaking the law to avoid paying taxes. New York state investigators may be able to corroborate those accusations.

Published with permission of The American Independent.