WASHINGTON--New York's attorney general ordered Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump's charitable foundation to immediately stop fundraising in the state, warning that a failure to do so would be a "continuing fraud."
For Trump, the cease-and-desist order was the latest in a series of blows that has sent his campaign reeling. The New York businessman and his aides spent much of the weekend dealing with the fallout from a New York Times report that said Trump may have avoided paying federal income taxes for almost 20 years.
New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman's office said the Donald J. Trump Foundation was violating a state law requiring charitable organizations that solicit outside donations to register with the office's Charities Bureau. The order followed a series of reports in The Washington Post that suggested improprieties by the foundation, including using its funds to settle legal disputes involving Trump businesses.
"The failure immediately to discontinue solicitation and to file information and reports required under Article 7-A with the Charities Bureau shall be deemed to be a continuing fraud upon the people of the state of New York," according to a letter dated on Friday that the office posted online on Monday.
Trump's campaign has suggested that the probe launched by Schneiderman, a Democrat, was politically motivated.
While again putting Trump's campaign on the defensive, the order could also undercut his efforts to make the Clinton Foundation, the family charity of Democratic presidential rival Hillary Clinton, a primary target in his campaign against her for the Nov. 8 election. Trump has sought to paint the Clinton Foundation as a "pay-to-play" operation under which the former U.S. secretary of state and her husband, former President Bill Clinton, rewarded big donors to the foundation with access.
The Clinton Foundation, which has $354 million in assets and almost 500 staffers, is a radically different charitable vehicle from the small-scale Trump nonprofit. It has worked to reduce the cost of drugs for people with HIV in developing countries, eradicate childhood obesity in the United States and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
There has been no evidence that foreign donors to the foundation obtained favours from the State Department while Clinton headed the agency. While some donors were able to obtain meetings with her or senior State Department officials, Clinton has said the fact that they had donated to the foundation did not play a role in her decision to meet with them.
