Last updated on July 17th, 2023 at 09:08 pm
The Washington Post’s David Fahrenthold is at it again. The last 24 hours have been brutal for Trump’s foundation on two fronts, one of which appears to be illegal.
Front one: Donald Trump’s Foundation claimed on its tax return forms that it gave $10,000.00 to The Giving Back Fund in 2008, but the organization says that donation does not exist, Fahrenthold reports.
This is the third charity that told the Washington Post reporter that the Trump Foundation’s tax forms were wrong when claiming they gave them money. He said he gave them money but they got none. So this doesn’t look like a “mistake”.
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Here’s the story so far:
1/Funny. 299th charity I called was @givingbackfund. @realdonaldtrump's Fdn told IRS it gave them $10,000 in '08… pic.twitter.com/4tGjaKlyFR
— David Fahrenthold (@Fahrenthold) September 2, 2016
2/@givingbackfund helps athletes & celebs run charities. @realDonaldTrump likes athletes & celebs. Seemed like a good lead…
— David Fahrenthold (@Fahrenthold) September 2, 2016
3/I asked: had @realDonaldTrump ever given any *other* gifts, not from his Fdn (which is other ppl's $) but from his own pocket?
— David Fahrenthold (@Fahrenthold) September 2, 2016
4/ They said: @realDonaldTrump's charity gave us $? Looked back. No. This gift on Trump Fdn's IRS forms didn't exist pic.twitter.com/YCd8dnKele
— David Fahrenthold (@Fahrenthold) September 2, 2016
5/This is the 3rd charity that's told me @realdonaldtrump Fdn's tax forms were wrong: he said he gave them $. They got none.
— David Fahrenthold (@Fahrenthold) September 2, 2016
6/In this case, @givingbackfund has written to @realdonaldtrump, asking for the $10K they supposedly got in 2008. Updates when I get 'em..
— David Fahrenthold (@Fahrenthold) September 2, 2016
Also, on the personal giving front, Trump has misled people claiming he’s given millions:
7/So: another dead end in my search for @realdonaldtrump's *personal* giving to charity. He says he's given millions pic.twitter.com/m4hejlrV0L
— David Fahrenthold (@Fahrenthold) September 2, 2016
Front two: The Internal Revenue Service fined Donald Trump for using funds from his charitable foundation to make a campaign donation to Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi, according to a Fahrenthold report from Thursday, in what appears to be a successful effort to launder illegal campaign donations.
Trump paid a $2,500 penalty to the IRS because “Trump’s charitable foundation had violated tax laws by giving a political contribution to a campaign group connected to Florida’s attorney general.”
“The improper donation, a $25,000 gift from the Donald J. Trump Foundation, was made in 2013.” And here’s where it gets really bad, “At the time, Attorney General Pam Bondi was considering whether to investigate fraud allegations against Trump University. She decided not to pursue the case.”
So as the media continues to spin the Clinton Foundation into a scandal even though it is not a scandal, it turns out Donald Trump’s “Charity” is bursting at the seams with scandals, and at least one of them is actually illegal.
In 24 hours, Fahrenthold has reported that Trump’s foundation is seemingly guilty of a pay-to-play scam and false claims of giving on its tax forms, which begs the question if the money didn’t go to those named, to whom did it go and why.
In light of the Trump foundation’s illegal donations to Bondi, investigating where the other money went is a no-brainer. Once again, Donald Trump accused Hillary Clinton of doing something that she was not actually doing, but he himself was doing. The old accuse your opponent of what you’re doing so when you get busted the public is desensitized and writes it off as he said she said.
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