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[PhoncipleBone]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/poli...3f6508-b0a9-11e6-8616-52b15787add0_story.html

President-elect Donald Trump’s charitable foundation has admitted to the IRS that it violated a legal prohibition against “self-dealing,” which bars nonprofit leaders from using their charity’s money to help themselves, their businesses or their families.

That admission was contained in the Donald J. Trump Foundation’s IRS tax filings for 2015, which were recently posted online at the nonprofit-tracking site GuideStar. A GuideStar spokesman said the forms were uploaded by the Trump Foundation’s law firm, Morgan, Lewis and Bockius.

The Post could not immediately confirm if the same forms had actually been sent to the IRS.

In one section of the form, the IRS asked if the Trump Foundation had transferred “income or assets to a disqualified person.” A disqualified person, in this context, might be Trump — the foundation’s president — or a member of his family, or a Trump-owned business.

The foundation checked “yes."

Another line on the form asked if the Trump Foundation had engaged in any acts of self-dealing in prior years. The Trump Foundation checked “yes” again.

Such violations can carry penalties including excise taxes, and the charity leaders can be required to repay money that the charity spent on their behalf.

Philip Hackney, who formerly worked in the IRS chief counsel’s office and now teaches at Louisiana State University, said he wanted to know why the Trump Foundation was now admitting to self-dealing in prior years — when, in all prior years, it had told the IRS it had done nothing of the kind.

“What transactions led to the self-dealing that they’re admitting to? Why weren’t they able to recognize them in prior years,” Hackney said. He said that, since the prior years’ returns were signed by Trump, that opened the president-elect to questions about what he had missed and how.

In September, a Trump campaign spokesman rejected the idea that Trump had done anything wrong, by using his charity’s money to buy art for his bar. Instead, spokesman Boris Epshteyn said, the sports bar was doing the charity a favor by “storing” its art free of charge.

Tax experts said that this argument was unlikely to hold water.

“It’s hard to make an IRS auditor laugh,” Brett Kappel, a lawyer who advises nonprofit groups at the Akerman firm, told The Post then. “But this would do it.”

Much more in the article. And yes, it is David Fahrenthold again.

 

[OnPoint]

BUT EMAILS!

 

[Frank the Great]

But was the self-dealing accomplished via email?

 

[jack_package_200]

That makes him smart.

 

[Muppet of a Man]

That's our Kleptocrat-in-Chief.

 

[Guevara]

I feel like we're in this worst-case scenario:

Republican congress can basically blackmail Trump day one by threatening to impeach him on any number of legitimate issues.

 

[Bruce Springsteen]

Is he going to release his taxes? I completely forgot about that controversy, but who gives a shit at this point now

 

[Apharmd]

Does it matter?

Does anything matter?

At all?

 

[Plumbob]

I feel like we're in this worst-case scenario:

Republican congress can basically blackmail Trump day one by threatening to impeach him on any number of legitimate issues.

Why would they though 🤔

Does it matter?

Does anything matter?

At all?

*pat pat* their their, have a spork

 

[Wilsongt]

But Clinton's pay to play emails, tho.

 

[Breads]

That makes him smart.

Pretty much. He's president now. He dgaf any more about optics.

 

[Randolph Freelander]

Media: mentally pretend this is about the Clinton Foundation and cover it accordingly.

 

[Snowybreak]

Man, this is like... Real, actual corruption. Like, PROVABLE corruption. And for some reason I know that people are just gonna brush it off.

 

[Kin5290]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/poli...3f6508-b0a9-11e6-8616-52b15787add0_story.html

Much more in the article. And yes, it is David Fahrenthold again.

How in the hell has WaPo not given Fahrenthold an entire team already?

 

[Shadybiz]

That's called business, by the way.

 

[PhoncipleBone]

How in the hell has WaPo not given Fahrenthold an entire team already?

If Trump is indeed making an enemies list, I would think that Fahrenthold would be near the top of it.

 

[jack_package_200]

If Trump is indeed making an enemies list, I would think that Fahrenthold would be near the top of it.

Donald would be the type of person to have an actual physical shit list.

Christ he is a petty child.

 

[Xe4]

But the Clinton foundation tho...

It's fucking pathetic, but no one will care. Trump could get away with murder.

 

[Zaraki_Kenpachi]

Why would they though 🤔



*pat pat* their their, have a spork

What's their benefit to keeping Trump? He's worthless to them.

 

[Bruce Springsteen]

But the Clinton foundation tho...

It's fucking pathetic, but no one will care. Trump could get away with murder.

 

[entremet]

Teflon Don indeed.

 

[Caja 117]

So what? Shit doesnt matter, He said it himself best he can kill someone in the middle of the st and he wont loose supporters. Decency is completly lost.

Beaten.

 

[zsynqx]

#lockhimup

 

[Horns]

Trump is like a cartoon villain.

 

[RuGalz]

That Clinton foundation... the one that actually helps people went under microscope for no reason yet this one means nothing.

 

[ArkhamFantasy]

Trump is like a cartoon villain.

The problem isnt Trump breaking the law, the problem is the 60 million grown ass men and women that dont care that he breaks the law and the 120 million that didnt care enough to even vote.

 

[smokeymicpot]

But those emails and her foundation.

 

[Thelonelykoopa]

Sadly probably won't matter Trump has succeeded in being such a awful person that we became desensitized to his actions.

 

[numble]

What's their benefit to keeping Trump? He's worthless to them.

If they impeached him, they would face a backlash in the next elections (Congress and Presidential elections). Trump's got a base. He gives them a chance of 8 years in power.

 

[Volimar]

At this point, his conflicts of interest and money grubbing don't interest me. I have to save my outrage for when it goes from shitty illegal behavior to downright harmful.

 

[kruis]

Man, this is like... Real, actual corruption. Like, PROVABLE corruption. And for some reason I know that people are just gonna brush it off.

This is tax fraud, not corruption.

 

[RDreamer]

This is tax fraud, not corruption.

"having or showing a willingness to act dishonestly in return for money or personal gain"

Tax fraud sounds like corruption to me.

 

[Byakuya769]

I imagine that this begs an audit into their prior filings.

 

[GrizzleBoy]

I imagine that this begs an audit into their prior filings.

Maybe he should ask his attorney general to mount a special investigation.

 

[D i Z]

They chose Trump for a reason for their platform. Everyone needs to stop paying attention to his never ending stream of distractions, and focus on those that are walking in the front door behind the media frenzy.
All of this was part and parcel for his presidency to keep all eyes on him.

 

[RustyNails]

 

[KDR_11k]

Why would they though 🤔

I'm guessing if he goes too much against the party's goals. Unlikely to actually happen, they'll use it as a threat to hang over his head so he doesn't dare step out of line.

 

[hydragonwarrior]

I can already see the following:

- too complex for rural Republicans to get
- if it's negative, they'll dismiss as biased media so it won't be able to catch on like e-mails

Glad it's found after the election tho.

 

[Joe]

And right on cue he tweets to distract away from this story

https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/801110690387857408

 

[Boney]

Oh no he might have to pay the money back, such strict convictions

 

[jerry1594]

I can already see the following:

- too complex for rural Republicans to get
- if it's negative, they'll dismiss as biased media so it won't be able to catch on like e-mails

Glad it's found after the election tho.

Rural voters may not have college degrees but they're not retarded. Except maybe in Appalachia

 

[SigmasonicX]

And right on cue he tweets to distract away from this story

https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/801110690387857408

I wasn't sure that the previous tweets were really an attempt to distract from Trump University, but this...

 

[RoboPlato]

Why aren't any prominent politicians calling him out on all this illegal and corrupt stuff he's admitted to? Most of them are grounds for impeachment but it seems like there'a no oversight and no one prepared to impeach him.

 

[digdug2k]

The problem isnt Trump breaking the law, the problem is the 60 million grown ass men and women that dont care that he breaks the law and the 120 million that didnt care enough to even vote.

Well, we have to shake things up in Washington, eh? Its not like the first black president, or a healthcare overhaul, or ending some wars, or building new treaties, or the teaparty takeover of the house, or the GOP take over of the senate, or any of the other 10 billion things that have happened in the last 8 years have been a shakeup at all. Nope, what we've really needed it to put a fucking sexist, racist, bigot, con artist in the white house. Its just like slapping the side of your microwave when it won't turn on. It will fix all of our problems.

 

[Man-is-Obsolete]

I wasn't sure that the previous tweets were really an attempt to distract from Trump University, but this...

Lol this is hilarious. Good try Don. The self proclaimed not qualified for office is such a great pick.

 

[Byakuya769]

And right on cue he tweets to distract away from this story

https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/801110690387857408

Yeah. This is a pretty obvious pattern now, I'd say.

Since when the fuck does the President announce who they're "considering" for such positions?

 

[ChryZ]

"Give him a chance.", they said. HAHAHA.

 

[Protein]

But Clinton's pay to play emails, tho.

The media fucked up so bad with emails.

 

[Souldriver]

But Clinton's emails though!




(I know I'm just repeating a popular line, but seriously, it is so fucking infuriating. So many true, legitimate, obvious scandals with Trump, yet nobody gives a fuck and instead focuses on invented nothingburgers like Email Ben Ghazi. I will never be able to let it go.)

 

[Hazmat]

But Hillary Clinton's foundation may have allowed for the possibility of a quid pro quo despite no evidence of wrongdoing being found!