Drlee wrote:I'd like to remind everyone today, Veterans Day in the US, that the president of the united states was convicted last week in a court of essentially defrauding veterans charities and ordered to pay them two million dollars in damages.
Hindsite and Big Steve are surprisingly quiet about this considering they both claim to be retired military men. Real soldiers would find this a deal breaker. Any soldier who would vote for someone who would defraud veteran's charities needs to examine their conscience.
Happy Veterans Day Drlee. Thank you for your service, and thank you to BigSteve and Hindsite for your service as well.
Trump was NOT convicted of defrauding veterans charities at all. On the contrary, he was commended for making good on his campaign promise. The issue came up, because his campaign staff and his charity staff coordinated, which legally is not proper. His political adversaries then went on a fishing expedition and found some irregularities. You cannot use your charity to purchase anything of value from your own business, even at cost, to give for charitable purposes. The business itself can give something away at cost, but the charity cannot be a source of funds. You also cannot use your charity to pay legal settlements unrelated to the charity.
Judge fines Trump $2 million for misusing charity foundationThe president admitted, among other things, to improperly arranging for the charity to pay $10,000 for a 6-foot portrait of him. He also agreed to pay back $11,525 in foundation funds that he spent on sports memorabilia and champagne at a charity gala.
The fine is kind of high for this, but I think the point is to shut down his charity and squeeze more money out of him.
Trump also admitted in the agreements to directing that $100,000 in foundation money be used to settle legal claims over an 80-foot flagpole he had built at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Fla., instead of paying the expense out of his own pocket.
In addition, the foundation paid $158,000 to resolve a lawsuit over a prize for a hole-in-one contest at a Trump-owned golf course, and $5,000 for ads promoting Trump’s hotels in the programs for charitable events. Trump admitted these transactions were also improper.
He should be fined for that. I think that's reasonable.
Charities are barred from getting involved in political campaigns, but in weighing the Iowa fund-raiser, Scarpulla [the judge] gave Trump credit for making good on his pledge to give $2.8 million that his charity raised to veterans’ organizations.
Veterans charities were not defrauded.
This came up as a result of Trump's feud with Megyn Kelly.
At the time of the Iowa fund-raiser, Trump was feuding with then-Fox News anchor Megyn Kelly and refusing to participate in the network’s final Republican presidential primary debate before the Iowa caucuses.
Instead, he held a rally at the same time as the debate at which he called on people to donate to veterans’ charities. The foundation acted as a pass-through for those contributions.
"We have put together the most extensive and inclusive voter fraud organization in the history of American politics."
-- Joe Biden