New York state's top prosecutor — who's dogged Donald Trump in a $40 million lawsuit over his shuttered real estate seminars — now has opened an inquiry into the GOP presidential nominee's charitable foundation.
In an interview Tuesday night on CNN, New York's Attorney General Eric Schneiderman said his interest in pursuing legal action against Trump University — and scrutinizing any possible "impropriety" in the Donald J. Trump Foundation — "is in my capacity as regulator of non-profits in New York state."
"We have been concerned that the Trump Foundation may have engaged in some impropriety from that point of view," he said.
"And we've inquired into it and we've had correspondence with them. I didn't make a big deal out of it or hold a press conference. But we have been looking into the Trump Foundation to make sure it's complying with the laws governing charities in New York."
According to Politico, which cited an unnamed source, Schneiderman opened the inquiry "based on troubling transactions that have recently come to light."
Schneiderman first made an enemy of Trump when he began aggressively pursuing fraud allegations against the operation of the Trump University real estate seminars. Yahoo News reports Trump's nonprofit donated $100,000 to a conservative group that was suing Schneiderman as he was investigating the real estate education venture.
Questions about Trump’s foundation have intensified after it was revealed it had sent a $25,000 donation in September 2013 to the Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi's re-election campaign, after her office said it was considering legal action against Trump University.
Bondi's office nixed joining the New York legal action against Trump University, citing insufficient grounds to proceed.
Trump was later fined $2,500 by the IRS for making a political contribution through a tax-exempt charity.
Meanwhile, House Democrats on Tuesday called for a federal criminal investigation into the donation.
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