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

[DonViejo]

Source: The Guardian




Documents obtained by the Guardian reveal Jay Sekulow approved plans to push people to give to his Christian nonprofit, which then paid big sums to his family

Jon Swaine
Tuesday 27 June 2017 05.00 EDT Last modified on Tuesday 27 June 2017 05.02 EDT

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”.


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

[neohippie]

1. Similar to Trump Son

How can these people run a non-profit and solicit donations telling people that their organizations don't charge to do this kind of work and then funnel huge amounts of this money into their own pockets and into the pockets of their families too?

How is this legal?

[Botany]

2. He is a perfect fit for Trump and company .... from the article

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 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”.

[Gothmog]

3. Sekulow is not a criminal defense lawyer

[keithbvadu2]

4. He should have one.

[MurrayDelph]

6. It's all in the punctuation

He's not a criminal-defense lawyer.

He's a criminal defense-lawyer.


(Thanks to Vince Gilligan for popularizing the difference).

[keithbvadu2]

5. 'Christian' charity - Prosperity for me; everlasting life for you.

[Turn CO Blue]

7. Jay Sekulow is a regular on the 700 Club, works with Pat Robertson. Tells me everything.

[All-In]

8. More Trumpscum

At work....

[muriel_volestrangler]

9. Kick (nt)

[Sunlei]

10. wow, tax free with that income is a big loss to any community.

[jmowreader]

11. Is there ANYONE within 50 feet of Trump's inner circle who isn't a crook?

[TomCADem]

12. While CNN Fires Reporters, He Stays on the Payroll...

...for insisting that Trump did not state that he was under investigation.

[Eugene]

13. Authorities to investigate Jay Sekulow nonprofit after 'troubling' revelations

Source: The Guardian

Authorities to investigate Jay Sekulow nonprofit after 'troubling' revelations

• Attorney generals of North Carolina and New York to examine Case’s filings
• ‘The reports I’ve read are troubling. My office is looking into this matter’
• Trump lawyer’s firm steered millions in donations to relatives, files show

Jon Swaine in New York
Wednesday 28 June 2017 19.21 BST

Authorities in two states are looking into a nonprofit led by an attorney to Donald Trump, after the Guardian reported it had steered tens of millions of dollars to the attorney, his family and their businesses.

Josh Stein, the attorney general of North Carolina, and Eric Schneiderman, the attorney general of New York, said on Wednesday they would be examining the operations of Jay Sekulow’s group Christian Advocates Serving Evangelism (Case).

Stein said in a statement: “The reports I’ve read are troubling. My office is looking into this matter.”

Amy Spitalnick, a spokeswoman for Schneiderman, said in an email: “We’re reviewing their filings.”

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Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/jun/27/trump-lawyer-jay-sekulow-obamacare-repeal-christian-nonprofit