Donald Trump lawyer's Christian charity asked donors for 'sacrificial gift' while diverting millions to trustees
Telemarketers 'told to pressure the poorest people into giving money anyway'
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Your support makes all the difference.An attorney for Donald Trump allegedly steered millions of dollars towards his family members by asking poor and unemployed people to donate to his Christian charity as a “sacrificial gift”.
Jay Sekulow reportedly encouraged poor and jobless people to donate money to Christian Advocates Serving Evangelism (Case), which was later funnelled to his family and firms.
Documents obtained by The Guardian purport to show that in June 2009, when the US struggled to pull itself out of a recession following the 2008 financial crisis, Mr Sekulow approved plans for telemarketers to urge people who said they were in poverty or out of work to dig deeper in their pockets to make a donation.
Among the documents obtained is a script of what telemarketers were required to tell people during phone conversations.
Retired people who said they were on a fixed income “with no extra money” were told “I can certainly understand how that would make it difficult for you to share a gift like that right now. And we don’t ever want to put you in a financial bind”.
But then people were asked if they could possibly make “a small sacrificial gift of even $20 (£15.6) or $25 (£19.5) in the next two or three weeks”.
Similar responses were made to people, who said they had “no money” and were unemployed.
Since 2000, more than $60m (£46.8m) was diverted from the non-profit to Mr Sekulow’s family and businesses, according to The Guardian.
It claims Case, a platform for legal action which aims to defend Christians against perceived encroachments on their rights, was used to make donations to his wife, sons, brother, sister-in-law, niece and nephews and their firms as well as provide a series of loans and property deals to the family.
Mr Sekulow, 61, is the president of Case and the chief counsel of its sister organisation, the American Centre for Legal Justice (ACLJ). He previously fought cases against efforts to extend abortion rights and legalise same-sex marriage.
Experts specialising in non-profit law said the family risked violating a federal law against such organisations paying excessive benefits to the people responsible for running them.
Mr Sekulow declined to comment, but his spokesman Gene Kapp said in a statement: “The financial arrangements between the ACLJ, Case and all related entities are regularly reviewed by outside independent compensation experts and have been determined to be reasonable.
“In addition, each entity has annual independent outside audits performed by certified public accounting firms.
“Further, the IRS has previously conducted audits of the ACLJ and Case and found them to be in full compliance of all applicable tax laws.”
The 61-year-old has become a staunch defender of Mr Trump since joining his team of attorneys amidst an investigation into alleged ties between his campaign team and Russia before the election in November last year.
Case reportedly raises millions of dollars each year from small donations. Telemarketers’ transcripts show people were “guilted” over the phone and warned about topics such as abortion, Sharia law and Barack Obama.
More recently, recipients of calls were pressurised by telemarketers saying the funds were urgently needed to repeal the Affordable Care Act, known as Obamacare.
“But if there were ever a time to stand with us, it’s now; and we wanted to make sure you were aware of the efforts to undermine our traditional Christian values,” listeners were told.
Law.com previously reported Case made payments of $25m (£19.5m) to a law firm co-owned by Mr Sekulow for legal services. His company Regency Productions, which makes his talk radio show, was also paid $11.3m (£8.8m) for production services.
Millions of dollars were also paid to his wife, his brother and his son as compensation for work done for the charity.
Arthur Rieman, managing attorney at the California-based Law Firm for Nonprofits told The Guardian: “I can’t imagine this situation being acceptable. That kind of money is practically unheard of in the nonprofit world, and these kinds of transactions I could never justify.”
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