Trump lawyer's firm steered millions in donations to family members, files show

[octoberlib]

More than 15,000 Americans were losing their jobs each day in June 2009, as the US struggled to climb out of a painful recession following its worst financial crisis in decades.But Jay Sekulow, who is now an attorney to Donald Trump, had a private jet to finance. His law firm was expecting a $3m payday. And six-figure contracts for members of his family needed to be taken care of.

Documents obtained by the Guardian show Sekulow that month approved plans to push poor and jobless people to donate money to his Christian nonprofit, which since 2000 has steered more than $60m to Sekulow, his family and their businesses.

Telemarketers for the nonprofit, Christian Advocates Serving Evangelism (Case), were instructed in contracts signed by Sekulow to urge people who pleaded poverty or said they were out of work to dig deep for a “sacrificial gift”.“I can certainly understand how that would make it difficult for you to share a gift like that right now,” they told retirees who said they were on fixed incomes and had “no extra money” – before asking if they could spare “even $20 within the next three weeks”.

In addition to using tens of millions of dollars in donations to pay Sekulow, his wife, his sons, his brother, his sister-in-law, his niece and nephew, and their firms, Case has also been used to provide a series of unusual loans and property deals to the Sekulow family.


https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/jun/27/trump-lawyer-jay-sekulow-donations

[Hortensis]

1. To be clear, this is about THE SEKULOW FAMILY.

Interesting, if true. Asking poor religious people to give to others is SOP for religion, and nothing wrong with that alone. It's what the organization does with the money after that matters, and in this case will be very interesting if true. And, sadly, it so often is.

[DeminPennswoods]

2. Happened to a neighbor

who didn't have anything to spare, but gave thousands over the years to Bakker and his organization. It enabled them to live the good life.

[Hortensis]

10. Yes, but the neighbor happened to himself also. His choice,

wise by the reckoning of others or not.

We had one too, but he was happy in his giving and, although he wouldn't have put it that way, died believing he should meet the criteria for passing through those golden gates.

He also believed greedy wealthy people and any ministries that turned out to be crooked were headed inexorably in the other direction for just what they deserved in the next life.

[DeminPennswoods]

17. Yes, it was voluntary giving

as my neighbor belived strongly in the basic tenets of Christianity, but my neighbor often had nothing left at the end of the month. I opened the refigerator once to put some leftovers I'd taken over in and there was literally one thing in it. My neighbor took food from her own mouth to send to people my neighbor thought were worse off. I don't blame my neighbor, but I do blame these religious phonies for taking advantage of people like my neighbor. In fact, it infuriates me.

[qanda]

3. He's been on Christian radio for a long time...

Begging! I'm sure more will come out about him and his unethical practices. IIRC, he was involved in one of those phone company MLM scams, too. It's been a while so I'm trying to remember.

[octoberlib]

4. I don't think Trump knows one ethical person. They're all scammers.

[joeybee12]

5. He might have come across one once...like Hillary at the debates...

But he would be miffed by what ethics are.

[rickford66]

12. He just assumes everyone scams.

[PatSeg]

6. Wow

Is there any low-life that Trump hasn't hired yet?

[llmart]

8. To be fair...

no one but a lowlife would work for this POS.

[PatSeg]

18. Well yeah,

I guess that is true!

[Snake Plissken]

7. Trump was extremely impressed by this scam, maybe even jealous

so he tried to one up him with Trump University

[George II]

9. This is the slimeball that made the rounds of the Sunday talk shows last week....

....sneeringly claiming that trump wasn't under investigation, knowing full well that he is.

I hope trump becoming "president" exposes them all and brings them all down - Manafort, Flynn, Page, this scum, and all the rest of them.

[PatrickforO]

16. Me too. They are a scummy bunch, and we should never have

elected Trump and allowed him to bring such dirtbags into government.

Talk about a swamp!

Or perhaps a cesspool.

Or a big, moldy, stinking sewer...

[Botany]

11. He is a perfect fit for Trump and company

Case raises tens of millions of dollars a year, much of it in small amounts from Christians who receive direct appeals for money over the telephone or in the mail. The telemarketing contracts obtained by the Guardian show how fundraisers were instructed by Sekulow to deliver bleak warnings about topics including abortion, Sharia law and Barack Obama.

“It’s time to let the president know that his vision of America is obscured and represents a dangerous threat to the Judea-Christian [sic] values that have been the cornerstone of our republic,” one script from 2015 said.

A 2013 script warned listeners that Obama’s signature healthcare law, the Affordable Care Act, promised to give Planned Parenthood federal funding to open abortion referral clinics “in your child’s or grandchild’s middle school or high school”.

[Achilleaze]

13. the republican take on "christian" values is super skuzzy

[dhill926]

14. what a vile piece of shit....

[PatrickforO]

15. Well....I'll start the chant....

Prison!

Prison!

Prison!

PRISON!

PRISON!