Thread by @padresj

There's a lot of noise swirling around yesterday's judgement against Trump by the NY Supreme Court.

I'd like to focus ONLY on the facts, and not the rhetoric.

First, though the case is about the Donald Trump Foundation, the judgement is against Trump himself.

Last year, Trump agreed to dissolve the foundation as part of a 4-part settlement w/the NY Attorney General.

Those four parts are important b/c they explain what was wrong w/the foundation, who was responsible, the penalties for the wrongdoing,

... and ADMISSIONS of wrongdoing.

The first stipulation of the settlement was the dissolution of the Foundation.

This was agreed upon after Trumps "No Settlement" tweet, and after a court judgement against them that the foundation was running illegally.

ag.ny.gov/press-release/…

The second stipulation of the settlement was that the foundation's remaining assets MUST be distributed to reputable charities that don't have any connection to Trump.

In addition to the $1.78M left in the foundation, Trump was ordered to PERSONALLY pay $2M in damages.

The fourth was for the Trumps to undergo training on being charity officers.

In addition to classes for Ivanka, Eric & Jr, this bans Donald from self-dealing, imposes restrictions on his board participation & mandates reporting for 5 yrs should he start another foundation.

I saved the third stipulation for last b/c it's the most relevant.

It includes 19 paragraphs of illegal activity by the foundation.

There aren't ALLEGATIONS or ACCUSATIONS. These are FACTUAL ADMISSIONS of guilt by Trump on behalf of his foundation.

ag.ny.gov/sites/default/…

The highlights of the admissions include:

- A Foundation fundraiser Jan 2016 raised $2.8M for Veterans, but the board (over which Trump presided) gave control of those funds to Trump's campaign.

- The campaign would go on to take credit for those funds.

- Trump used Foundation assets to pay legal obligations of his properties, including:
* Feb 2007 - $158k for the settlement of an award against the Trump Nataional Golf Club

* April 2007 - $100k for a settlement against Mar-A-Lago

* March 2014 - $100k for a portrait of Trump

* 2013 - $5k to DC Preservation League to advertise The Trump Hotel Collection

* Dec 2015 - $32k to North American Land Trust to settle an easement with Seven Springs, LLC

The entire list of violations is too long for Twitter, but you should read the entire suit & settlement document. It's tome of self-dealing and campaign/charity law violations.

It should be noted that Trump paid back many of these expenses, but ONLY AFTER he had been caught.

The admissions show that there was no real distinction between foundation assets and Trump assets. During the campaign, Lewandowski made direct draws on Foundation assets to give donations in the name of the campaign.

Most importantly:

- Trump ADMITTED the Foundation wrongdoings as listed in the 19 paragraphs.

- Trump did NOT donate $2M on his own, he was ordered to by the court.

- Trump did NOT dissolve the Foundation b/c he was tired of being hassled. It was part of the settlement.