Timothy L. O’Brien writes:

The Trump Foundation, a tiny New York outfit masquerading as a philanthropy but operating, essentially, as a personal piggy bank for the president of the United States, is no more.

Barbara Underwood, the New York state attorney general, announced on Tuesday that her office and the foundation signed a stipulation agreeing to dissolve Donald Trump’s long-standing but chronically underfunded gesture toward charitable giving. Trump launched his foundation in 1988 as a vehicle, he claimed, for distributing profits from his bestseller “The Art of the Deal” to needy causes, but the foundation was housed at his company, the Trump Organization, and had no dedicated staff or office space.

“Our petition detailed a shocking pattern of illegality involving the Trump Foundation — including unlawful coordination with the Trump presidential campaign, repeated and willful self-dealing, and much more,” Underwood noted. “This amounted to the Trump Foundation functioning as little more than a checkbook to serve Mr. Trump’s business and political interests.”

While the Trump Foundation evaporates, Underwood’s office said, the attorney general’s lawsuit against the organization will proceed. The lawsuit seeks millions in restitution and penalties and a bar on Trump and his three eldest children — Donald Jr., Ivanka and Eric, who all served on the foundation’s board — from serving on the boards of other New York charities. [Continue reading…]