New York sues Trump for 'illegal conduct' at family foundation
AFP/File / Timothy A. CLARYUS President Donald Trump along with his children Eric(L) Ivanka and Donald Jr. in 2017: they were accused in a New York lawsuit Thursday of misusing funds at the Donald J. Trump foundation, the president's personal charity
New York State filed suit Thursday against President Donald Trump, his sons and daughter, alleging a pattern of "persistently illegal conduct" at their family foundation and seeking the charity's dissolution.
The lawsuit, filed on Trump's 72nd birthday, marked a new addition to the legal woes facing the White House, ranging from lawsuits from two women claiming affairs with Trump, to the sprawling probe into his campaign's ties with Russia.
But while it carries the threat of multi-million dollar financial penalties, and the closure of the charity, the civil lawsuit is unlikely to lead to criminal charges against the president or his children, or to strengthen the case of those seeking his impeachment.
The suit accuses the Donald J. Trump foundation of "extensive unlawful political coordination with the Trump presidential campaign, repeated and willful self-dealing transactions to benefit Mr. Trump's personal and business interests, and violations of basic legal obligations for non-profit foundations."
It says the real estate tycoon elected president in 2016 used charity funds from the foundation to pay his legal bills, promote his Trump-branded hotels, and for personal spending -- including the ostensible charity purchase of a portrait of Trump that was then mounted on the wall at one of his golf clubs.
The lawsuit also claims Trump used the foundation illegally to raise $2.8 million to support his presidential campaign in a televised fundraiser on January 28, 2016 -- held as he skipped a Republican presidential primary debate.
Trump quickly responded with tweets in which he called the suit a "ridiculous case" and indicated he will fight it.
He accused "sleazy New York Democrats" of "doing everything they can to sue me on a foundation that took in $18,800,000 and gave out to charity more money than it took in, $19,200,000."
"I won't settle this case!" he said.
- Legal attacks mount -
The suit added to multiple legal challenges confronting Trump, newly returned from a ground-breaking summit in Singapore with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, which the White House hopes will lead to Kim giving up his nuclear weapons.
Trump is facing possible allegations of obstruction of justice from Russia collusion investigator Robert Mueller, and his former personal lawyer Michael Cohen is also under investigation in New York for issues that could relate both to Trump's businesses and to the Russia probe.
The suit names the president, sons Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump, and daughter Ivanka Trump, who were on the board of the foundation.
It seeks restitution of $2.8 million and the shutdown of the foundation, as well as a 10-year ban on Trump serving on the board of any other New York charity. A one-year ban is sought for his three children.
It also recommends the Internal Revenue Service investigate the foundation -- which provides Trump with an avenue for tax writeoffs -- over tax violations.
"As our investigation reveals, the Trump Foundation was little more than a checkbook for payments from Mr. Trump or his businesses to nonprofits, regardless of their purpose or legality," said New York Attorney General Barbara Underwood.
"This is not how private foundations should function and my office intends to hold the foundation and its directors accountable for its misuse of charitable assets," she said in a statement.
- Settling private lawsuits -
The lawsuit paints a picture of regular misuse of foundation funds, which were allocated by Trump himself for years. It alleges that Trump's actions were "willful and knowing," having been caught out for illegal payments multiple times and forced to correct or make amends.
That included the January 2016 charity event which the Trump campaign, using the foundation, put on for veterans. About half the money raised, $2.8 million, was directed by campaign staff -- not foundation staff -- to be moved through the foundation to boost Trump's image.
Other alleged abuses included providing foundation funds to a Florida political campaign; settling a 2007 lawsuit between the City of Palm Beach and Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort, and settling a lawsuit by a golfer who took part in a Trump-sponsored charity event in 2012.
Illustrating the poor management of the foundation, of which Trump was president until moving into the White House in January 2017, the lawsuit said its board had not met since 1999.
National strike in Nicaragua to shake Ortega's grip on power
AFP / INTI OCONA student poses next to graffiti that reads "Daniel get out!" in allusion to the embattled President Daniel Ortega
Nicaragua's capital Managua took on the airs of a ghost town Thursday, as a day-long national strike was held to protest two months of violent chaos under President Daniel Ortega that rights groups say has left at least 157 people dead.
Commerce stood still as shops, banks and eateries across the country closed for the "peaceful" 24-hour work stoppage ending at midnight.
Images from the capital's normally bustling Mercado Oriental market showed shuttered storefronts. Busses and taxis were nowhere in sight.
Brutal violence meanwhile broke out overnight in a number of hotspots including Masatepe -- a municipality just southwest of flashpoint city Masaya -- where a top rights group reported that four people were killed and several others wounded.
Alvaro Leiva, the head of Nicaragua's Association for Human Rights (ANPDH), said that in Masaya, a city on the front lines of the anti-Ortega uprising, armed pro-government paramilitaries opened fire at activist-guarded barricades.
Prior to the strike Nicaraguans rushed en masse to gas stations and supermarkets to stockpile food and supplies.
Jorge Esquivel, 60, said he supported the action called by a coalition of student, business and civic representatives, one of the main groups involved in the now-stalled talks with the government.
"We have to make this sacrifice," he told AFP as he left a supermarket. "In one day we will not die of hunger."
- 'Return to dialogue' -
The work stoppage comes as Nicaragua's influential bishops work to rekindle crisis talks.
The Catholic clergy on Friday will publicly unveil both their mediation offer and Ortega's response -- something the country has been anticipating for a week.
Managua's vocal auxiliary bishop Silvio Jose Baez tweeted that the Church supports "the national strike as an act of pressure and social protest."
The strike "will demand an end to the repression, and support democratic and peaceful change, and a return to dialogue," he said.
Bishops previously called off talks with Ortega after a march led by victims' mothers was violently repressed last month.
The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights voiced "alarm and deep concern" over Nicaragua's "serious human rights crisis" in a statement.
The commission condemned "the excessive use of state force" and attacks on protesters by pro-government paramilitary forces, groups that "the State has the obligation to dismantle."
- 'Repressed' citizenry -
AFP / Nicolas RAMALLO, Gustavo IZUSA national strike began Thursday to protest a deadly crackdown on a two-month long uprising against President Daniel Ortega
Mario Arana, director of Nicaragua's Association of Producers and Exporters, estimated the strike would result in a $25 to $30 million economic loss.
The private sector broke with Ortega after the president unilaterally approved a measure -- since rescinded -- to overhaul that country's social security system. This triggered the unrest that exploded on April 18 into a mass effort to pressure Ortega to leave office.
Mediating the crisis "has taken more time than the situation really justifies," Arana said. The people "are being repressed and this strike is to express discontent."
Activists have erected blockades on more than two-thirds of the country's roads in a bid to fend off Ortega-backed forces.
The makeshift roadblocks have wreaked economic havoc: even in the unlikely scenario that Ortega "accepts an early negotiated exit" by the end of July, the Nicaraguan Foundation for Economic and Social Development (FUNIDES) estimates the country would post losses of $404 million and bleed 20,000 jobs.
FUNIDES anticipates Nicaragua would lose $916 million in added value and 150,000 jobs by December if Ortega stubbornly stays in office and protests continue.
Ortega's Sandinista guerrilla army ousted the Somoza dictatorship in 1979, and the leftist leader has remained a major political force ever since.
He is currently serving his third consecutive executive term, due to expire in 2022.
But even some who had fought with Ortega are now turning on him along with his eccentric wife and vice president Rosario Murillo, demanding he move up the presidential election slated for late 2021.
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