The Trump Foundation

Transcript

The episode as narrated, with years shown as numerals. Archival tape is quoted from the official record.

0:00 Cold open: the veterans fundraiser

In January 2016, days before the Iowa caucuses, Donald Trump skipped a televised debate. Instead, his campaign held a fundraiser for veterans in Des Moines. About two point eight million dollars went to a charity bearing his name. Welcome to The Dirtpile.

One scandal at a time. File three: The Trump Foundation.

0:26 The Foundation and the lawsuit

Trump created it in 1980-seven as a New York charity. Its directors included Trump and three of his children. In June 2018, New York's attorney general sued the Foundation and all four. Trump's campaign and businesses, including the Trump Organization, were not parties.

That December, the Foundation agreed to dissolve under court supervision. So what did the Foundation admit, and what did a court decide?

0:54 What Trump admitted

In a 2019 settlement, Trump and the Foundation agreed to certain facts. The board, it says, "did not meet from 1990-nine through November 2018." It also says "the Campaign directed the timing, amounts, and recipients of the Foundation's grants." Trump, it says, personally displayed copies of Foundation checks at Iowa campaign events.

The facts were admitted, but the agreement disclaims any admission of liability. The suit's other allegations were never admitted or tried.

1:25 What the judge decided

In November 2019, a New York judge, reviewing the record, including those admissions, found Trump breached his fiduciary duty to the Foundation. The Iowa money, the judge found, was used for his campaign and handed out by campaign staff, not the Foundation. The judge ordered Trump himself to pay two million dollars, split among eight charities. The judge cut the amount sought because the money "did ultimately reach" veterans' charities.

The judge added no penalty, citing limits Trump accepted on future charity roles. It was a charity-law ruling, not a campaign-finance finding.

2:01 Six other payments

The agreed facts describe six other payments. They helped settle disputes involving two Trump clubs, paid for an ad for a Trump hotel in a charity's program, and covered another Trump company's pledge. One bought a ten-thousand-dollar portrait of Trump, later hung at one of his hotels. Another sent twenty-five thousand dollars to a political committee.

A clerk testified she confused it with a charity of the same name. All six were repaid, some with interest; five of them after the attorney general's investigation began. The judge made no separate finding on them.

2:33 The children, and Trump's response

Donald Junior, Ivanka, and Eric admitted no facts. After training on directors' duties, they were dismissed for good. The day the suit was filed, Trump posted, "I won't settle this case!" The day after the ruling, he told reporters, "My charity was great."

2:50 Side by side

Charity law asks not only where the money went, but who decided. The record leaves these side by side. A board that didn't meet for nineteen years, and a campaign that directed the grants. Facts admitted, and no admission of liability.

"I won't settle," and a settlement. Money that reached veterans, and two million dollars in damages.

3:17 Our question

Here's our own question, not an official finding. When a family charity's board never meets, who's watching before the state steps in? This is The Dirtpile. One scandal at a time.