New York attorney general sues Trump family foundation

The New York attorney general sued the Donald J. Trump Foundation on Thursday, claiming it acted as the president’s personal piggy bank. Attorney General Barbara Underwood, a Democrat, demanded the foundation pay $2.8 million in restitution and dissolve. Her predecessor, who started investigating the foundation in 2016, already ordered it to stop fundraising in New York. The president’s foundation acted as “little more than a checkbook for payments from Mr. Trump or his businesses to nonprofits, regardless of their purpose or legality,” Underwood said as she announced the suit.

A spokeswoman for the foundation, who also serves as its lawyer, has not responded to the claims. But after the Washington Post first reported on the foundation’s finances in 2016, the Trump campaign dismissed the story and subsequent investigation as politically motivated. The lawsuit focuses on a nationally televised fundraiser in January 2016, claiming the foundation allowed Trump campaign staffers to dictate how the money was spent. The suit names the foundation, the president, and three of his children as defendants.