Donald Trump’s campaign came out swinging after the Washington Post accused the Republican presidential nominee of misusing charity funds.
“In typical Washington Post fashion, they’ve gotten their facts wrong,” Jason Miller, Senior Communications Advisor for Trump, said in a statement released Tuesday. The statement was in response to the latest story by the Post’s David Fahrenthold claiming Trump used $258,000 from his charity to settle four legal disputes.
The Trump response says there was no “intent or motive” for improper payments; it does not deny them, or detail any alleged inaccuracies. pic.twitter.com/QxrgrUxdVI
— Rebecca Sinderbrand (@sinderbrand) September 21, 2016
Here’s the @Fahrenthold story the Trump campaign is responding to: https://t.co/HHQNGajv45
— Rebecca Sinderbrand (@sinderbrand) September 21, 2016
According to Fahrenthold, who has been digging into Trump’s charity donations for a while:
Donald Trump spent more than a quarter-million dollars from his charitable foundation to settle lawsuits that involved the billionaire’s for-profit businesses, according to interviews and a review of legal documents.
Those cases, which together used $258,000 from Trump’s charity, were among four newly documented expenditures in which Trump may have violated laws against “self-dealing” — which prohibit nonprofit leaders from using charity money to benefit themselves or their businesses.
In one case, from 2007, Trump’s Mar-a-Lago Club faced $120,000 in unpaid fines from the town of Palm Beach, Fla., resulting from a dispute over the height of a flagpole.
In a settlement, Palm Beach agreed to waive those fines — if Trump’s club made a $100,000 donation to a specific charity for veterans. Instead, Trump sent a check from the Donald J. Trump Foundation, a charity funded almost entirely by other people’s money, according to tax records.
The Trump campaign’s response stated that there was not “any intent or motive for the Trump Foundation to make improper payments. All contributions are reported to the IRS, and all Foundation donations are publicly disclosed.”
It further pointed to the Post story as “peppered with inaccuracies and omissions from a biased reporter who is clearly intent on distracting attention away from the corrupt Clinton Foundation.”
The statement, along with an appearance on CNN by Trump’s campaign manager Kellyanne Conway, did not seem to appease reporters.
.@realDonaldTrump campaign just put out a statement. ICYMI, here were the Q’s I sent them for my Trump Fdn story. https://t.co/Gfmen7V10p
— David Fahrenthold (@Fahrenthold) September 21, 2016
None of which were answered https://t.co/tSYkuCnPzo
— Dan Eggen (@DanEggenWPost) September 21, 2016
Team Trump accuses Wash Post of getting facts wrong re: Trump Foundation, but doesn’t identify a fact they got wrong pic.twitter.com/2aWcICuJDh
— Peter Alexander (@PeterAlexander) September 21, 2016
Trump statement on @Fahrenthold story doesn’t deny anything in the story. pic.twitter.com/H3oXtPeQlZ
— Jonathan Allen (@jonallendc) September 21, 2016
What specifically was inaccurate or omitted? @nbcnews asked the campaign about the reporting earlier and have yet to receive a response. pic.twitter.com/U9VaPvAZaq
— Katy Tur (@KatyTurNBC) September 21, 2016
they
can’t
prove@Fahrenthold
is
wrong https://t.co/m894Fuzdm3— Matt Pearce (@mattdpearce) September 21, 2016
Conway totally misleads here about @Fahrenthold‘s reporting. The money was not Trump’s and was used to settle a lawsuit. pic.twitter.com/ncxsvq3ldd
— Sopan Deb (@SopanDeb) September 21, 2016
It’s not a mislead, it’s a complete lie. He took donated charity money to pay his own legal bills. His contributions were long gone. https://t.co/Xg8k3hoVwr
— Anthony De Rosa (@Anthony) September 21, 2016
This is wild – campaign going nuclear on a reporter who has absolutely nailed the story https://t.co/BWSoLFB9qr
— Alex Burns (@alexburnsNYT) September 21, 2016
But many on social media were not so quick to accept allegations made by what is already a mistrusted press, and they were happy to say so.
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@BAKKOOONN @sinderbrand @brianstelter @Fahrenthold Washington Post does nothing but fill their entire paper w/hit pieces on Trump
— ?JGina Layug (@JGBear101) September 21, 2016
@Fahrenthold @realDonaldTrump wow if only you wrote a story about pay to play and the destruction of 10 blackberries with hammers
— Arthur Gelinas (@ArthurGelinas) September 21, 2016
@PeterAlexander @JasonLaCanfora where is the investigation into the corrupt Clinton Foundation? Liberal media is a joke #justthefacts
— Jeff Adams (@dirttracklive) September 21, 2016
@PeterAlexander @JasonLaCanfora why would he entertain a hit piece full of lies. Just call them out and move on. #NFLExecutive
— NegroNomicon (@Jmf627) September 21, 2016
@PeterAlexander @davidfrum Excellent response. Let the media chase its tail.
— TPF (@thinkngpolitics) September 21, 2016
@sinderbrand @SaqibReports I’m not a Trump supporter but if you can’t read that as a plain denial then you’re losing objectivity, IMHO.
— Ophir Gottlieb (@OphirGottlieb) September 21, 2016
.@KatyTurNBC@NBCNews IRRELEVANT REPORTER REPORTING IRRELEVANT STORIES MAKING THEMSELVES IRRELEVANT! THE END OF MSM IS UPON US! REJOICE
— TP (@Vmarius123) September 21, 2016
(H/T: Twitchy)
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Originally from New York, Powers graduated from New York University and eventually made her way to sunny South Florida where she has been writing for the BizPacReview team since 2015.
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