Update: Shortly after publication, Quartz received the following statement from the Trump campaign: “While we remain very concerned about the political motives behind [New York Attorney General] Schneiderman’s investigation, the Trump Foundation nevertheless intends to cooperate fully with the investigation. Because this is an ongoing legal matter, the Trump Foundation will not comment further at this time.”
The Donald J. Trump Foundation hasn’t been short of controversy in recent weeks. Just a handful of the allegations surrounding it are that the Republican presidential nominee has used the charity’s funds to spend:
- A quarter of a million dollars settling his own lawsuits
- $20,000 on a portrait of himself
- $12,000 on a helmet signed by football player Tim Tebow
- Oddly, to donate over $100,000 to the Clinton Foundation
Now, the New York attorney general’s charities bureau chief, James Sheehan, says the foundation has been violating state law, and has stopped it from fundraising in New York at all. Trump previously used the foundation as a small family charity run with his own funds but, according to the Post, he stopped donating his own money to it at all after 2008 and has ramped up its quest for donations this year.
In a letter sent to the foundation from Friday, that was released this morning, Sheehan said Trump’s foundation had failed to register with the charities bureau and that if it keeps soliciting money from donors, it will be deemed “a continuing fraud upon the people of the state of New York.” Trump has, notably, previously called the Clinton foundation a “vast criminal enterprise.”
The Trump Foundation now has 15 days to submit various paperwork and financial reports to the Charities Bureau. Trump Foundation fundraising website www.donaldtrumpforvets.com seemed to no longer be receiving donations on Monday afternoon.