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New York Urges Judge to Find Trump Foundation Misused Funds

New York Urges Court to Let Trump Foundation Lawsuit Proceed

(Bloomberg) -- New York Attorney General Barbara Underwood urged a judge to find that President Donald Trump misused funds from his charitable foundation despite his calling her lawsuit politically motivated.

The attorney general accused the Trump Foundation of engaging in a decade-long pattern of self-dealing, culminating with alleged illegal coordination with Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign.

Attorneys for the president fired back that the June complaint was instigated by Underwood’s predecessor, Eric Schneiderman, who they called the "leader of the resistance" to the president’s agenda. Schneiderman abruptly resigned in May after being accused of assaulting women. Trump contends the case should be thrown out.

Trump Says All Funds He’s Given to Foundation Went to Charity

In her latest filing, Underwood reiterated her allegation that the foundation distributed grant checks bearing the slogan "Make America Great Again" at Trump’s campaign rallies. In addition, campaign staff controlled $2.8 million raised by the foundation at a January 2016 event in Iowa, she said.

The attorney general also cited Trump’s $10,000 bid for a portrait of himself -- which he then directed the foundation to pay for -- during a charity auction at his Mar-A-Lago estate in Florida.

"The foundation cannot conveniently distance itself from these unlawful transactions," the attorney general told the court.

Underwood is seeking restitution of funds paid to the presidential campaign and a court order banning Trump from serving as a director of a New York not-for-profit for 10 years, as well as one-year bans for each of his three children that serve as board members on the foundation.

The case is People of the State of New York v. Trump, 451130-2018, Supreme Court of the State of New York, County of New York (Manhattan).

To contact the reporter on this story: Andrew Harris in Washington at aharris16@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: David Glovin at dglovin@bloomberg.net, Peter Blumberg, Joe Schneider

©2018 Bloomberg L.P.