New York's attorney general on Thursday sued US President Donald Trump and his namesake foundation, saying the non-profit foundation should be dissolved after more than a decade of illegal conduct, including support for Trump's 2016 US presidential campaign.
Barbara Underwood, the attorney general, accused the Donald J. Trump Foundation and its directors of conducting "extensive unlawful political co-ordination" with the campaign, and "repeated and willful self-dealing" to benefit Trump's personal and business interests."The Trump Foundation was little more than a chequebook for payments from Mr. Trump or his businesses to non-profits, regardless of their purpose of legality," Underwood said in a statement. "That is not how private foundations should function."
The foundation could not immediately be reached for comment.
Trump's children were also named as defendants in the attorney general's petition, filed with the New York State Supreme Court in Manhattan.
New York is also seeking $2.8mn of restitution plus penalties, a 10-year ban on Trump serving as a director of a New York non-profit, and one-year bans for his children Donald Jr, Eric and Ivanka.
Trump blasts lawsuit
President Donald Trump attacked "sleazy New York Democrats" after the state's attorney general sued him and his namesake foundation, and Trump said he would not settle the case.
"The sleazy New York Democrats, and their now disgraced (and run out of town) A.G. Eric Schneiderman, are 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!" Trump wrote on Twitter.
Schneiderman, the former state attorney general, resigned in May. The suit was filed by the current attorney general, Barbara Underwood.
