ATL Redline, Justice, Politics, Tax Law

The Media Did Its Job Exposing Trump's Alleged Tax Fraud: But It Can't Make You Care

Turns out, it is Donald Trump, not Hillary Clinton, who has used his charitable foundation for illegal gain.

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Let’s all give the Washington Post a round of applause. Faced with a Presidential candidate who is hiding his own tax returns, the Post did the next best thing, and looked at the publicly available documents from the Trump Foundation, Trump’s “charity.”

The Post reports Trump used $258,000 from his charity to settle personal legal disputes. For those playing along at home: if the allegations are true, that’s illegal. From the story:

Donald Trump spent more than a quarter-million dollars from his charitable foundation to settle lawsuits that involved the billionaire’s for-profit businesses, according to interviews and a review of legal documents.

Those cases, which together used $258,000 from Trump’s charity, were among four newly documented expenditures in which Trump may have violated laws against “self-dealing” — which prohibit nonprofit leaders from using charity money to benefit themselves or their businesses.

Game, set, match. Turns out, it is Donald Trump, not Hillary Clinton, who may have used his charitable foundation for illegal gain. It is Donald Trump, not Hillary Clinton, who is running with a stunning lack of transparency. It is Donald Trump, not Hillary Clinton, who does not deserve your trust.

I am sure that is how this story will play out. Now, let me tell you about this wonderful bridge that has just gone up for sale.

Don’t miss the forest for the trees here. The Post story suggests that Trump misappropriated funds from a charity to pay off his own legal debts. If true, that’s fraudulent, unethical, and immoral. If a “normal” candidate did this, it’d be the end of his campaign. If Hillary Clinton did this… she’d be stripped naked and forced to do the Cersei walk. Be real: If Hillary Clinton improperly used charitable funds to buy herself a tampon, they’d put out an alert for her capture on 3-1-1.

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Of course, Trump is not a “normal” candidate, and this is not a normal election. Many people, including me, have blamed “the media” for the Trump phenomenon, but all the media can do is report the truth. Somehow, the fact that Trump is a liar about his own positions, who refuses to tell us which foreign entities he owes money to, is already baked into his support. It’s doubtful that tax fraud will shake his base. Short of saying that he doesn’t believe that white people are the master race, it’s hard to imagine anything that will lose him his base.

For those still on the fence about Hillary, this story will only serve to highlight their hypocrisy. There is no equivalency between the Clinton Foundation and the Trump Foundation. Nobody serious is even accusing the Clinton Foundation of illegality: there are just those who don’t like how it looks. The Clinton Foundation has the “appearance” of unethical influence. In contrast, the Post put together a case for actual and clear violations of the law on the part of the Trump Foundation. That’s kind of a big difference.

The limits on what charities can spend their money on are not new. They’re not even particularly complicated. According to the Post, the Trump Foundation made a $100,000 “charitable donation” to settle fines with Palm Beach County over the size of Trump’s flagpole at Mar-a-Lago (you can’t make this stuff up). A charity can’t do that. Anybody who has ever been on the business end of a charity knows that it can’t do that. A law student who barely passed the MPRE knows it can’t do that.

But, you know, Hillary had pneumonia and didn’t tell anybody about it for 48 hours so… I GUESS SHE’S JUST AS TERRIBLE. Hillary’s charity tries to keep people from getting AIDS while Trump’s buys an autographed Tim Tebow helmet (again, not making that up), SO THEY’RE REALLY THE SAME. What do you have to lose by voting for a con-man who allegedly defrauded students of Trump University, and allegedly committed tax fraud with his on charitable foundation, when the Democratic alternative is just “more of the same” suite of BORING, centrist policies? THANKS OBAMA!

The Washington Post did its job, today. It’s the American people who are full of crap.

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Earlier: Clinton Foundation’s Real Sin Was Helping Black And Brown Foreigners Instead Of Puppies

Trump used $258,000 from his charity to settle legal problems [Washington Post]

Elie Mystal is an editor of Above the Law and the Legal Editor for More Perfect. He can be reached @ElieNYC on Twitter, or at elie@abovethelaw.com. He feels like “trust” is the new dog whistle for “But… she’s a girl.”

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