Law enforcement investigators subsequently discovered various ethical and legal violations, including failure to register in New York, self-dealing and illegal campaign contributions.
[4][5][6] In December 2016, Trump tried to dissolve the foundation, but the New York State Attorney General's office blocked dissolution pending completion of its investigations.
[10] According to the foundation's IRS Form 990 filing for 2013, in making grants the directors were not subject to any "restrictions or limitations on awards such as by geographical areas, charitable fields, kinds of institutions, or other factors".
[41][42] However, the office of the New York State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman blocked the dissolution, saying the foundation "cannot legally dissolve" until its current investigation is completed.
[44] In December of that year, the foundation signed a stipulation agreement to dissolve, with its assets going only to charities approved by the attorney general's office.
[63] In April 2016, Fox News reported that more than two months after Trump said he had raised $6 million for military veterans at a pre-Iowa caucus fundraiser, "most of the organizations targeted to receive the money have gotten less than half of that amount".
A 2001 report by The Village Voice stated, after visiting the museum in East Harlem, that the facility had "next to no art" and no official connection to the Catholic Church, despite a ten-year record of having solicited large-scale donations for its collection.
[76] Settlement documents show that Trump, in return for discharging the club's obligations to Palm Beach, had agreed to personally donate $100,000 to Fischer House, a charity benefitting veterans and military families.
"[34] In September 2016, the Post reported that the grant was directly linked to the legal settlement, likely violating IRS self-dealing rules by using charitable funds to pay Trump's personal or business obligations.
"We're past the point where a reasonable person could believe this is just a never-ending series of once in a lifetime errors", said CREW Communications Director Jordan Libowitz.
The Charlotte Observer quoted Graham saying, "[Trump] was on her show, and [Van Susteren] said, 'I was just in Haiti and Samaritan's Purse is doing this down there, and Donald, you need to help.'
"[87] In 2016, several media outlets alleged that Van Susteren had been producing overtly pro-Trump reports on her Fox News show On the Record.
At the time Citizens United was engaged in a lawsuit against New York State attorney general Eric Schneiderman, whose office was pursuing a civil suit against Trump University.
[90] The Trump Foundation's 2014 tax filing[91] misidentified Citizens United as a public charity (501(c)(3)) when it is in fact a social welfare organization (501(c)(4)).
[34][94][95] In May 2015, the Trump Foundation granted $10,000 to Project Veritas, a news organisation run by conservative filmmaker James O'Keefe.
[96][97] A Democratic National Committee spokesman noted Trump's donation after Project Veritas released another video on the 2016 presidential election.
A Project Veritas spokesman said the Trump Foundation's donation "didn't impact our actions one way or the other" and were a small part of the organization's budget.
[87] In October 2016 RealClearPolitics reported that Trump directed significant amounts of foundation money to conservative organizations, possibly in return for political support and access.
In many cases, this flow of money corresponded to prime speaking slots or endorsements that aided Trump as he sought to recast himself as a plausible Republican candidate for president."
[86][101] Trump's granting of foundation money to these groups could have violated the law, if it was in return for his personal right to speak or gain access to networking events.
[112] In 2007, the Celebrity Fight Night Foundation hosted a fundraiser to benefit the Muhammad Ali Parkinson's Center in Phoenix, Arizona.
[114] Some examples: Both The Washington Post and Fox News reported that Trump repeatedly claimed in public, beginning in 2015, to have made over "$102 million" in charitable donations "in the past five years".
The appearance was broadcast on a large screen and lasted only twenty minutes, including delays caused by translation and by technical difficulties.
In 2018 The New York Times reported that the office of Special Counsel Robert Mueller was investigating the donation as a possible illegal in-kind campaign contribution from a foreign national intended to curry favor with then-candidate Trump.
The former head of the Internal Revenue Service's Office of Exempt Organizations Division Marc Owens told The Washington Post regarding the various allegations against the foundation: "This is so bizarre, this laundry list of issues ...
[62][135] On October 17 a spokesperson for the attorney general's office confirmed that the Trump Foundation had agreed to cease solicitation of donations in New York State.
On October 4, 2018, Attorney General Underwood filed a memorandum opposing the motion, instead of strengthening the charges against the Trump Foundation and now alleging, among other claims, that the full $2.8 million of distributions resulting from the January 2016 Iowa fundraiser represented illegal campaign contributions that needed to be repaid.
The foundation characterized the payment to the charities as a "contribution," stating it was "pleased to donate an additional $2 million" to "worthy organizations.
[132] On September 13, 2016, all fifteen Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee, then in the minority, sent a letter to Attorney General Loretta Lynch requesting that the Justice Department launch a criminal investigation of Trump in connection with his foundation's $25,000 grant to Pam Bondi's campaign.
[156] Also on September 13, 2016, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), a left-leaning watchdog group, filed a complaint with the Internal Revenue Service citing evidence they argued would compel the agency to seek back taxes and penalties and revoke the foundation's tax-free status.