I {heart} New York… of course the AG charged the Trump Foundation on the old man’s birthday…
He doesn’t love drawing attention to his age (72 today). https://t.co/1OL97r6spL
— Jennifer Jacobs (@JenniferJJacobs) June 14, 2018
happy birthday, @realDonaldTrump pic.twitter.com/BWEgRAcdPX
— christine teigen (@chrissyteigen) June 14, 2018
Just talking to a former IRS official about this. He was amazed at the range of the violations here. "They hit an extroardinary catalog of how *not* to run a private foundation. There’s little else he could have done that would have made it worse." https://t.co/349rMIV8rr
— David Fahrenthold (@Fahrenthold) June 14, 2018
The face you make when the guy who accused your foundation of wrongdoing gets lit up for extensive wrongdoing in his… pic.twitter.com/i2NB6oexTT
— The Hoarse Whisperer (@HoarseWisperer) June 14, 2018
Key takeaway in NY AG suit. There are ways semi-corrupt/corrupt pols use foundations/charities as piggybanks with no fingerprints. These facts show a complete indifference to those "best practices." Complete indifference/lack of familiarity with following the law.
— Josh Marshall (@joshtpm) June 14, 2018
The NY complaint also more or less accuses Trump of criminal perjury. https://t.co/zASr5dhHTw pic.twitter.com/XAX39fHyR1
— Orin Kerr (@OrinKerr) June 14, 2018
Man, the New York AG included in their petition an actual picture of a note that is clearly in Trump's handwriting directing his charitable foundation to use funds to settle a legal issue involving Mar-a-lago. Trump can deflect all he wants; that's clearly illegal.
— Leon Wolf (@LeonHWolf) June 14, 2018
How weak was the oversight in Trump's charity, which he used as a piggy bank? One of its board members – for more than a decade – didn't realize he was on the board https://t.co/8dJhX6CjtE pic.twitter.com/X7GeMJV4NK
— Drew Harwell (@drewharwell) June 14, 2018
A good thing for news companies to do this week: Publish an estimate of reporter-hours they spent on Clinton & Trump foundations in 2016
— Jamison Foser (@jamisonfoser) June 14, 2018
.@realDonaldTrumps Fdn has no staff…it's always relied on Trump Org. employees to write its checks, do its accounting, etc. https://t.co/MZ7dyErKtY
— David Fahrenthold (@Fahrenthold) June 14, 2018
From the NY AG's press release: pic.twitter.com/T37UvvLwY9
— erica orden (@eorden) June 14, 2018
You’re so gonna settle this case… https://t.co/4x5FcUWJie
— Daniel W. Drezner (@dandrezner) June 14, 2018
Trump also said he would not settle the Trump University suit. He settled it. https://t.co/LUEz40URuZ
— Maggie Haberman (@maggieNYT) June 14, 2018
In this video, @Fahrenthold explains how President Trump directed people who owed him money to make their payments to the tax-exempt Trump Foundation instead.
They're now being sued by the New York AG.https://t.co/jjSc4kMVM5 pic.twitter.com/ehMi5Zi48i
— Peter Stevenson (@PeterWStevenson) June 14, 2018
Fox News has done extensive reporting on the potential criminality of charitable foundations led by political figures so I’m sure they’ll be all over this story today and in the weeks to come.
— Jon Favreau (@jonfavs) June 14, 2018
Platonailedit
Two years too late, NY AG.
Mike in NC
Not yet Friday, but overall not a great week for Fat Bastard even after he bowed before Lil Kim.
B.B.A.
@Platonailedit: That’s what we get for electing a man (an evil, violent, abusive man being blackmailed by Cohen) to do a woman’s job.
Mary G
She wants him to give the $1 million left in the foundation to other charities and pay NYS $2.8 million in penalties. I wonder if he even has that much money free.
Christine and John Legend are pretty cool and her twitter feed can be hilarious.
Yarrow
M4
This news made me smile every time I thought about it today.
randy khan
Amidst the mind-numbing violations of law and best practices, remember that nearly all of the family foundations in the country are entirely funded by the families that establish them. The Trump Foundation got essentially no money from Trump, which makes it more like those fake charities that call you to beg for money for police orphans and actually spend every dime on fundraising than like the Ford Foundation. Heck, the Koch Brothers are orders of magnitude more charitable than Trump. (Of course, they have real money.)
Kay
Google “Clinton Foundation”. The New York Times really thoroughly flogged that story. Nothing rivals the email coverage of course, the biggest story of the century, but it was close!
Odd though. All those years and the Trump Foundation right under their noses and nary a mention.
zhena gogolia
@Mary G:
OT except John Legend, but I’ve been listening to the CD of the NBC Jesus Christ Superstar, and his performance as Jesus is excellent. It really comes through on the audio, because his acting was eclipsed by Brandon Victor Dixon on the show.
BruceFromOhio
@Platonailedit: Perhaps. Still, better than not at all, which is what these two-bit ratfuck soulless criminals expect.
What interests me from an anthropological perspective is, how long will the trained seals keep clapping as the many truths of how unbelievably depraved these people are, this man is, come to light? It’s a morbid thing, like wondering how long I might survive while being devoured by worms or being tortured with a spoon. Regrettably, it takes down my fucking country, along with a whole lot of people with little or nothing left to lose.
Kay
I love that they used it to pay legal fees for one of the sleazy businesses. I hope it went to Cohen. We’ll be seeing that again!
The Trumps will never pay that fine, BTW. They better attach one of the properties or they’ll never see a dime of that money.
BruceFromOhio
@Kay: Yes, odd. Makes one wonder, why, exactly is that? So .. many questions.
Mary G
Oh, the irony that it may be insurance companies that help us get rid of guns in our culture:
M4
They’re horrible and evil, okay sure, but god, they’re also so gallingly shallow about it.
Mike J
@Mary G: It was insurance companies that told Kansas schools they wouldn’t cover them if they allowed teachers to carry.
If guns made you safer insurance companies would require them.
Kay
Guffaw. “Demands”. I mean, he can say it, but is it necessary to pretend it means something?
M4
OT: Here’s Samwise, nature’s perfect killing machine.
Duane
An RNC text today asked me to send my wishes to Trump on his birthday. I sent him, the RNC, and their former finance committee heads my thoughts and prayers. Mostly for their quick demise or lengthy jailtime.
Kay
@BruceFromOhio:
It’s just weird how all this brazen white collar crime went completely undetected, given that his name is all over those buildings and he was a reality tv show star. Not enough clues, I guess. They couldn’t track down these criminals for 50 years. Maybe they needed a service address. “1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. Finally”.
Duane
@Kay: All republican demands should be answered with STFU.
jk
@M4:
This whole fucking first family is pure, unadulterated trash and they all belong in prison.
Platonailedit
Voters, even the rethugs, need to wake the fuck up.
B.B.A.
@Kay: Laws are only for the little people.
??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??
Why the fuck is Sean Spicer wishing the man that probably made his life a living hell happy birthday?
jk
@Kay:
And if that doesn’t happen, Rudy will stomp his feet and hold his breath.
M. Bouffant
Tick-tock, tick-tock, mofos.
Mandalay
And in other legal news, Michael Cohen has filed a STFU-or-else order against Michael Avenatti for saying mean, howwible and nasty things about him all the time.
IANAL but the irony of Trump’s lawyer arguing this in pursuit of a gag order on Avenatti is a bit rich:
jk
@??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??:
Stockholm Syndrome.
Platonailedit
@Kay:
LOL. Indeed. All the governmental oversight agencies dropped the ball. Collectively. And repeatedly.
??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??
@Mike J:
There you libs go again, bringing your facts and reality into this. Everybody knows good guys with guns literally everywhere make us all safer. //
M. Bouffant
California Bear:
??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??
@Platonailedit:
The local news here in Ohio was pretty brutal (for local TV news) on Trump. Plainly stated that the footage of Trump saluting that North Korean general is being used as propaganda in the DPRK. Also reported on the “tent cities” being planned. They’re usually much more “even handed”. I saw a headline in the Plain Dealer the other day, to the effect of “Objectives unclear after Summit”. This isn’t exactly glowing and if I was a low-info voter this would be deeply concerning.
Between this, the thousands of migrant children being held in concentration camps, and the trade war against practically the entire world, I don’t know. I think the spell is beginning to fade. Trump is scaring a lot of people and the press is getting wise to his flash over substance shtick.
Mandalay
Now Ivanka’s pinned tweet (“Those who say it can not be done, should not interrupt those doing it.”) makes perfect sense.
She’s talking about those nattering nabobs of negativism who told her that the Trump family should not be getting suckers to donate to the Trump Foundation and then using that money to get her dad elected.
SectionH
@M4: It did help, didn’t it? ;->
Eljai
@M4: What a splendid kitteh!
dmsilev
@jk:
Oddly enough, that’s also the technical term for Trump’s Nobel Prize Envy.
(and yes, I know the Peace Prize is awarded in Oslo. I doubt Trump knows that.)
Platonailedit
Remember the rethugs issuing empty threats of how they gonna impeach Obama on unstated “high crimes and misdemeanors” ?
Suffragettecity
@M4:
Too cute !! Made me smile ..a lot!
dmsilev
@Mandalay: Someone should tell her that aphorisms like that are the sole property of green puppets lifting X-wings out of swamps.
marcopolo
Here’s hoping this is foreshadowing for the November midterm election:
Major Major Major Major
@Suffragettecity: @Eljai: Danke!
HumboldtBlue
With little else to offer, here’s a man who makes rings out of spoons.
What happened to Randinho?
It’s fucking Russia, the U.S. is absent and it’s fucking Russia.
Fuck. I’m still gonna watch some.
SFAW
@dmsilev:
Isn’t that in Maine? Just up the road a piece from Sweden?
sukabi
@Kay: It would be so sweet if Ghouliani’s demand was met with his indictment for obstruction.
sukabi
@??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??: Stockholm syndrome, unemployment and a desperate need to be relevant.
Wapiti
@Platonailedit: I was sort of miffed that the NYAG also recommended the 3 elder offspring be banned from running charities for 1 year. Hell, they were blatantly disregarding their duties on the board for something like 19 years. They should be banned from being on a charity BoD for 10 years as well.
MisterForkbeard
@Kay: “The report showed that Strzok didn’t let him biases against Trump impact the investigation and that he was canned as soon those biases became known to management. Therefore, he must be jailed and his boss must be fired fucking immediately Or Else.”
Oh, that’s not like a banana goddamn republic at all, is it?
sukabi
@Wapiti: can you run a charity from prison? Maybe she knows something we don’t.
MisterForkbeard
@sukabi: Sweet, AND legally correct! Perfect! :)
Major Major Major Major
@MisterForkbeard:
Closely related to the best kind of correct.
MisterForkbeard
@Major Major Major Major: I will admit to thinking of that exact scene.
Zapp knows what’s up: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_1yJ-E9Fb_w
Major Major Major Major
@MisterForkbeard: I actually thought about posting one of his scenes here earlier today, or possibly last night.
ETA: The space chicken lawyer, before you changed it to Zapp
ETAA: Have you seen Billy West doing Trump quotes in Zapp’s voice? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=406KqNDgKuI
Quinerly
Darrell Issa getting a new job?
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-06-12/trump-expected-to-name-new-cfpb-chief-next-week-mulvaney-says
MisterForkbeard
@Major Major Major Major: Yeah. The “Now, I’m just a humble hyper chicken from a backwoods planet” bit is priceless, but I figured Zapp was better. And I was really hoping somebody would post the Billy West/Trump thing, though it’s also kind of depressing.
Major Major Major Major
@MisterForkbeard: Every time Jeff Sessions speaks I think of that line. Every. Single. Time.
ETA well, every time I hear him speak at least!
?BillinGlendaleCA
@??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??:
Wait until gas prices hit $5 or $6.
Mandalay
The vile Joe Scarborough is being uncharacteristically modest about his signal “achievement”:
Perhaps Scarborough believes that after a couple of years stuff on the internet biodegrades, and eventually gets completely erased, so that nobody will know about everything he did to get Trump elected.
Mnemosyne
When I was a kid, I had a friend who was born on the 14th of June, and I was always a little jealous that she got to have a holiday on her birthday, while I only got to have Father’s Day every four-ish years since I was born one day later.
Trump has helped me let go of that old feeling, so … thanks?
(Yes, this is partly a convoluted way of saying that tomorrow is my birthday. We’re going to Disneyland!)
Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (formerly Mumphrey, et Al.)
@??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??:
Stockholm syndrome would be my guess.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Mnemosyne:
Did you win a sporting event of some kind?
ETA: Oh, and an early wish for a happy b-day.
FlipYrWhig
I was thinking about Trump’s weirdness involving his many supposed conversations with parents of slain Korean War soldiers from 65 years ago and it occurred to me: is Trump perhaps unaware that Korea and Vietnam are two different places?
SiubhanDuinne
@Mnemosyne:
Well, I knew about the Disneyland part but not the birthday part. Have a happy, and enjoy your mini-vacation!
Comrade Colette Collaboratrice
@M4: Handsome kitteh! I see your predator and raise you a Scoot.
SiubhanDuinne
@FlipYrWhig:
Wouldn’t surprise me at all. That theory certainly makes as much sense as anything else, and would be in keeping with his overall ignorance and dearth of curiosity.
Shalimar
@Quinerly: They might want to do an inventory before Issa takes over, make sure he doesn’t “borrow” any cars. Though he is the logical choice for protecting consumers given Trump’s “who is the most corrupt person possible for this position” job-search criteria.
Major Major Major Major
@Comrade Colette Collaboratrice: Aww.
SiubhanDuinne
@Quinerly:
I honestly thought you were joking, so I clicked to see what the joke was.
Holy shit, you were serious!
SiubhanDuinne
@M4:
@Comrade Colette Collaboratrice:
Samwise and Scoot — beautiful kittehs, but such unlikely configurations!
Mnemosyne
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
You know me, I’m all about the sportsball. Yay team, kick a home run!
The fact that I got a half-price room at the Grand Californian is the true influencer. Don’t tell G that half-price is still really fucking expensive. It’s my money, anyway.
@SiubhanDuinne:
Thank you! Technically it’s still an hour to go on this coast, but I wanted to catch the nighttime crowd.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Mnemosyne: I’m going on an adventure next month, I’m flying to Sacramento.
J R in WV
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
Wow, deepest darkest Sacramento, Capital of Central California. I hear they build with big stone blocks there… is that quake proof?
Mnemosyne
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
Like, voluntarily? ?
Kidding — I remember you said you were going to go up there for a photo safari. Hopefully you’ll get some nice shots.
jl
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
” I’m going on an adventure next month, I’m flying to Sacramento. ”
We all need to hear about this. What are you plans for Northern California, SoCal stranger?
Makes me think about voting yes on the split California initiative. Keep those outside agitators out of here.
Aleta
My hopeful question is, how likely is it that the illegal acts of the sham Tr Fdn will entangle the T Organization even more? (New kinds of trouble in addition to Russia and potential money laundering, foreign agents and whatnot.)
I remember (a few months ago?) Mueller subpoenaed the T Org for its records concerning Russia and other unknown parts of the investigation. Iirc, he supposedly went straight to the subpoena, without going through a period of ask and wait for compliance.
Anyway, I hope there are some threads of felonies running not only from the Fdn to the campaign, but also to the Organization. A KO for the TO.
So that the sibs may live their mean lives appearing in front of judges for years and years. So that the loans and shell companies and cash flow and NYC apartments and rotten deals collapse all around them more spectacularly than ice shelves of a melting glacier crash into the sea.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@J R in WV: The Capitol itself is a steel frame building, it was given the White House treatment about 40 years ago.
@Mnemosyne:
@jl: I was planning on driving up there, but I found a competitive airfare, so I’m flying. I’m taking pics of the Capitol and the surrounding area. Looking at the Capitol website, I’ll have to take my camera bag instead of my camera backpack.
Aleta
@Mnemosyne: Happy last 16 minutes before your birth day. Btw your marigolds are up and got some rain today. I hope to show you a picture some day, though drop box is all I know how to do.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@jl: Also, since I visited the Capitol in Jerry’s first year as Governor, I think it’s fitting that I visit his last year as Governor.
Sister Golden Bear
@Mnemosyne: And now it’s official: Happy Birthday!
sukabi
Colbert’s commentary on the internment of children was good tonight.
Aleta
@Mnemosyne:
? HAPPY ? BIRTHDAY ? ❣️
Aleta
@?BillinGlendaleCA: I like driving around that area.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Mnemosyne: Happy 29th b-day!
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Aleta: I won’t have a car since I’m flying, it’d be about a 5 to 6 hour drive each way and the cost wouldn’t me much less than flying.
Aleta
-TASS
Aleta
@?BillinGlendaleCA: OK then … I like eating the avocados around that area.
sukabi
@Aleta: it’s funny how these guys just keep popping up in drumpf’s orbit…also funny how “fake news” and “witch hunts” have become the go to defense.
Mnemosyne
Thanks, all! Now I need to get to sleep — we have to get up bright and early to take Annie for her checkup with the kitty dermatologist. Then it’s time for booze and giant mice!
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Mnemosyne: I think you see the giant mice after too much booze.
Elizabelle
@Mnemosyne: happy birthday and sweet dreams
piratedan
it really is kind of funny how the GOP has completely abandoned the old positions of “being the rudder for common sense”, lets understand the implications of change before we embrace it and so on and so forth and have completely bought into feeding the beast that their media arm has created by vilifying everything that they aren’t. It’s actually kind of terrifying that these guys are willing to meekly go full Nazi so they can stay in power as if they really are completely devoid of ethics and morals and that they should be in charge, because baby jaysus said that all middle age white dudes have the dominion of kings.
If Democrats take control, there shouldn’t be a purge, but we sure as hell better stop being “collegial” about this shit and punish every last one of the asshats that broke our laws in order to get their freakish hate flags on….
I will gladly pay my taxes to witness that and we can have the Donald J. Trump Presidential Library housed at Leavenworth Federal Penitentiary.
Mel
@Mnemosyne: Happy birthday to you!
M. Bouffant
@FlipYrWhig: If there’s any vaguely sequential explanation, it’s that Lumpy’s conflating/confusing the recently released D.P.R.K. prisoners w/ the remains of service members.
“Hey, parents are parents, some of those people whining at me must’ve lost their kid …”
Van Buren
Have they blamed the accountants yet?
NorthLeft12
Hey, my memory is definitely not what it used to be, but was’t a lot of this malfeasance widely reported in 2016?
Like, before November?
And I seem to recollect that the Trump foundation was known to be a Sham/Scam well before that.
Too bad something was not done earlier, because I have the sneaking suspicion that none of this will matter.
trnc
@Kay:
NPR, too. I think there’s a better than even chance the Koch Bros have some editorial power at NPR in the same way they had hiring control at George Mason.That’s the only way I can make sense of the Clinton Foundation stories, the weekly stories about DT supporters and non-pushback on the obvious lies of DT administration officials in interviews. I hope one day I’ll feel like I can become a sustainer again. I think they’ve been a little better in the last couple of weeks, so we’ll see.
Also, did anyone else think it was weird that Cokie’s segment this week was spent answering listener questions about the history of the Korean War rather than her usual politcal rundown? Seems like they would have brought on a Korea expert for that and had Cokie taking about the politics of the NK summit. Maybe they couldn’t find enough (or any) pluses to highlight for DT.
different-church-lady
a)
We’ll have self-driving unicorns before we ever see any “we got rolled” articles from the media.
b) We have to remember that things like this are only symptoms of the root problem, which is: far too many Americans are just… shitty… people.
Reformed Panty Sniffer
http://www.nydailynews.com/resizer/1CfePgy2B8KI3SuXjvl2eSsYo00=/1400×0/www.trbimg.com/img-5b230f4f/turbine/ny-1529024327-iiol464qai-snap-image
Bobby Thomson
@different-church-lady: this and this.
Josie
@Mnemosyne: Happy Birthday. Hope it’s a good one.
Gelfling 545
@Mnemosyne: I need me some Disney right now but unfortunately it’s not in the budget just now. AND I read on FB that we may be facing a world shortage of Irish whiskey!
Shana
@Duane: My father used to get those occasionally. He’d write in big letters “Pardon Richard Nixon? The American people would never stand for it. – Gerald Ford” and send it back. He’d also stuff as much junk mail as possible into the envelope along with it.
Stan
My god I wish I’d thought of that!