Trump Charity Ordered To Stop By Regulator Who Should Have Made It Stop A While Ago

What other charities in New York are shady that I don't know about because their leader isn't running for President?

 (Photo by Neilson Barnard/Getty Images for European School of Economics Foundation)

(Photo by Neilson Barnard/Getty Images for European School of Economics Foundation)

Here’s the thing: shouldn’t somebody have put a stop to the farce that is the “Trump Foundation” before Donald Trump started running for President? Isn’t that, like, the JOB of state regulators? If your ability to protect the public from questionable “charities” is reliant on the reporting of the Washington Post, doesn’t that mean you are not doing a good job protecting the public?

Last week, the Washington Post revealed that the “Trump Foundation” lacked the New York State certification required to solicit more than $25,000 a year from the public. Today, New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman sent the Trump Foundation a Notice of Violation — essentially a cease-and-desist letter — ordering it to stop soliciting contributions, unless it can submit the appropriate paperwork within 15 days.

Guys… THAT’S BACKWARDS. The story is supposed to be “The New York Attorney General has slammed Trump for various violations regarding his charity: Check out the full story in the Washington Post.”

Schneiderman’s office released a statement that tries to skirt the issue of regulatory incompetence:

“The Attorney General’s office is the sole regulator of charities in New York State, and when evidence of clear misconduct is brought to our attention, we take action,” a spokesman for the attorney general’s office said in a statement.

Yes, and as the “sole regulator,” YOU are supposed to be on the lookout for “evidence of clear misconduct.” Schneiderman’s office is basically admitting that it fell down on the job here, and that failure costs it most of the moral high ground.

Sponsored

What other charities in New York are shady that I don’t know about because their leader isn’t running for president? Is the ASPCA still good? I see the puppies and assume that my $20 bucks is buying dog food and hugs, but I guess I don’t really know. Evidently, neither does the NYAG.

In any event, a cease-and-desist letter is kind of a useless document. “Stop doing that bad thing, or we’ll sue you.” I’m not sure that kind of thing works on Trump. Schneiderman best be prepared to come up with something more potent than a Notice of Violation if he wants to actually stop the Trump Foundation. That’s the kind of thing his office could have been working on had it been aware of the violation before the Washington Post told them.

On the politics side of it, I don’t know any Trump supporter who is going to be less pro-white Nationalism because Trump’s charity didn’t file the proper paperwork. The last 48 hours have seen people calling Trump a “genius” for losing $900 million and paying no income tax, Trump implying PTSD victims were weak, and Rudy Giuliani saying that Trump is better for the United States than “a woman.” Let’s just agree that his shady “charity” is not the scandal that’s going to break him.

But somebody should be making sure that our charities are what they say they are. And that job shouldn’t fall to the Washington Post. If the Trump Foundation violated the law, it was a violation the regulators missed until Trump started terrifying the nation.

Trump Foundation lacks the certification required for charities that solicit money [Washington Post]
Trump Foundation Ordered by New York AG to Stop Fundraising [NBC News]

Sponsored


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. This is why he only gives to organizations that support dogs.