Trump Foundation found to have broken the law, yet receives much less media coverage - Michael Calderone



Here are a few stories about possible conflicts of interest and corruption scandals involving him in recent weeks:

* The Huffington Post reported that Trump quintupled the rent charged to the campaign for using Trump Tower between March and July, even though the campaign had fewer paid staff in the latter month. The obvious inference to draw is that Trump raised the rent once his campaign was being financed primarily by outside contributions rather than the candidate himself.

* The Wall Street Journal reported that, as of July, 17 percent of all of the Trump’s campaign spending had gone to “companies linked to himself or his children, or to reimburse their travel expenses.”

* The Post’s David Fahrenthold reported that Trump had to pay a $2,500 fine to the IRS because “Trump’s charitable foundation had violated tax laws by giving a political contribution [of $25,000] to a campaign group connected to Florida’s attorney general.” Oh, and by the way, after Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi’s campaign received that money, she decided not to investigate fraud allegations against Trump University. This is but one in a series of Fahrenthold’s investigations into Trump’s bogus claims of charitable donations.

* The AP reported the appearance of a similar pay-for-play deal with Texas Gov. Greg Abbott back in 2010 when Abbott was the Texas attorney general and decided, like Bondi, not to pursue an investigation into Trump University. A former Texas official says he was told to drop any investigation for “political reasons,” according to CBS. - By Daniel W. Drezner WaPo