Wyden Calls for Investigation into Misuse of Charitable Organizations, Continuing Bipartisan Finance Committee Tradition

Wyden: “When serious questions about compromising the integrity of our charitable tax laws are raised, the Senate Finance Committee has never ducked”

Washington, D.C. – Senate Finance Committee Ranking Member Ron Wyden, D-Ore., today urged Finance Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, to join him in a bipartisan investigation to examine laws regulating charitable organizations. Wyden called for the investigation to include the Trump Foundation. The Finance Committee has Congressional oversight over tax-exempt organizations and has a longstanding, bipartisan history when it comes to investigating the misuse of charities.

“When serious questions about compromising the integrity of our charitable tax laws are raised, the Senate Finance Committee has never ducked,” Wyden wrote in a letter to Hatch. “Through this Committee’s long history—and particularly over the past ten years—the Senate Finance Committee has rigorously investigated alleged abuses of charitable tax laws, often on a bipartisan basis.”

The letter goes on in part: “In order to continue this work, I write you today to request that the Senate Committee on Finance commence an immediate bipartisan investigation that includes the Donald J. Trump Foundation to determine whether current rules and IRS enforcement sufficiently protect charitable resources from self-dealing, partisan political activity, and other actions that are inconsistent with the laws governing charitable organizations.”

Last week the New York Attorney General’s office found that the Trump Foundation was engaging in illegal transactions known as ‘self-dealing’ to benefit Trump and his for-profit organizations. Their office revealed that the foundation was engaging in prohibited political activity with Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign. The investigation’s findings illustrated how campaign operatives were directing the non-profit’s funds to be used for political purposes instead of charitable causes.

You can read the full letter to Chairman Hatch here.

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