Essential Consultants, the Trump Foundation and Donald Trump's need for ready cash
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On October 3, 2016, the Donald J. Trump Foundation was issued a “notice of violation” and directed to cease soliciting funds. Exactly two weeks later, on October 17, Michael Cohen established Essential Consulting LLC. There might not seem to be aEssential Consultants, the Trump Foundation and Donald Trump's need for ready cash
On October 3, 2016, the Donald J. Trump Foundation was issued a “notice of violation” and directed to cease soliciting funds. Exactly two weeks later, on October 17, Michael Cohen established Essential Consulting LLC. There might not seem to be an immediate connection between a charitable foundation supposedly created to channel contributions to worthy causes, and a shadowy company for which Cohen solicited contributions from both US and foreign corporations. Except that both seemed to serve the same purpose: Provide Donald Trump with a means to spend other people’s money while dealing with his legal issues. Less than two weeks after the election, while the nation was still reeling from the idea that Donald Trump had lost the popular vote, but was still headed for the White House, the Trump Foundation admitted to several instances of self-dealing. Many of those instances were detailed in the Pulitzer-winning, crowdsource-assisted reporting of David Fahrenthold. That reporting helped open up the details of Trump’s foundation, showing that it was less a charitable fund, and more a way for people to funnel money to Donald Trump to do so while taking a tax credit in exchange. Two weeks later, Trump quietly announced that he was shutting down his “charitable” foundation—though the actual closure of the Donald J. Trump Foundation did not happen for a year because of the pending legal action. Trump treated the funds that landed in his foundation as an all-purpose slush fund. He bought football memorabilia and several genuinely hideous portraits of himself. He also made sizable political contributions out of the fund, both in New York and in Florida. But the biggest self-dealing that Trump did from his “charity” was in covering his personal legal fees. That included covering the legal expenses after Trump welched on a golf bet. The foundation had to admit this usage when it was closed down, and Trump paid penalties both for self-dealing and for using the fund for political contributions. While this was happening, Michael Cohen was not only Donald Trump’s personal attorney, he was definitely aware of how Trump used his foundation. In fact, it may have been Cohen who encouraged Trump to tap into that fund for needed cash. And Cohen who provided Trump with an alternative when that source was closed to him. It was certainly Cohen who personally solicited a payment to Trump after he gave a speech for a Ukrainian billionaire. The payment that Cohen demanded for that event didn’t go to the Trump Organization, it went, by instruction, to the Trump Foundation. Why Trump didn’t simply ask for a payment to himself for this arrangement remains unclear, as does most of his use of the Trump Foundation for what are clearly personal purchases. Both Cohen and Trump had to be aware that the way the foundation was being used was simply illegal. Read more