Evidentiary Tier 4
Credibly Reported Through Investigative Journalism
49 entries
The $2 Billion Kushner-Saudi Investment: Saudi Arabia Funded Jared Kushner's Firm After He Shaped Favorable Middle East Policy
Financial Fraud and Manipulation | 2021 - 2024
Six months after leaving his role as a senior White House adviser, Jared Kushner, Donald Trump's son-in-law, launched a private equity firm called Affinity Partners and secured a $2 billion investment...
Calling Meghan Markle 'Nasty' and Then Denying It: A Case Study in Gaslighting Captured on Audio
Treatment of Individuals | 2019 - 2019
In June 2019, days before a state visit to the United Kingdom, Donald Trump was informed during an interview with the Sun newspaper that Meghan Markle, the Duchess of Sussex, had said during his 2016 ...
Radicalizing Effect: Domestic Terrorists Who Cited Trump's Rhetoric in Their Manifestos, Court Filings, and Public Statements
Incitement, Endorsement, and Encouragement of Violence | 2018 - 2025
Multiple individuals who committed or attempted acts of domestic terrorism in the United States between 2018 and 2022 explicitly cited Donald Trump's rhetoric as a motivation, used language that mirro...
QAnon Embrace: Amplification of Conspiracy Movement Through Social Media, Rallies, and Private Events
Incitement, Endorsement, and Encouragement of Violence | 2018 - 2024
Beginning in 2018 and escalating through his 2024 presidential campaign, Donald Trump engaged in a documented pattern of amplifying QAnon, a conspiracy movement that the FBI has classified as a domest...
Conditioning Disaster Relief on Political Loyalty: Delayed Aid to California, Puerto Rico, and Other States That Opposed Trump
Abuse of Official Power | 2017 - 2025
Multiple reports from former White House officials, investigative journalists, and government records indicate that President Donald Trump conditioned or delayed federal disaster relief based on wheth...
Alleged Pardon Offer to Julian Assange: Conditioning Clemency on Denying Russian Involvement in DNC Email Hack
Abuse of Official Power | 2017 - 2020
In February 2020, during a London extradition hearing, lawyers for WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange alleged that the Trump administration had offered Assange a presidential pardon in exchange for publ...
Ivanka Trump China Trademarks: Foreign Government Approvals Coinciding with Diplomatic Engagements
Emoluments and Constitutional Financial Violations | 2017 - 2018
While serving as a senior adviser in the White House, Ivanka Trump maintained ownership of her eponymous fashion and lifestyle brand, which held and actively sought trademarks in foreign countries, in...
Mar-a-Lago: Pay-for-Access and Security Breaches at the 'Winter White House'
Emoluments and Constitutional Financial Violations | 2017 - 2021
Throughout Donald Trump's first term, his private club Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Florida, functioned as an informal seat of government where paying members gained proximity to the president, foreign d...
Trump Organization Foreign Licensing Deals During the Presidency: Ongoing Business Relationships in Countries Where U.S. Foreign Policy Was Active
Emoluments and Constitutional Financial Violations | 2017 - 2026
Throughout both of Donald Trump's presidential terms, the Trump Organization has maintained active licensing and management agreements with foreign business partners in countries where U.S. foreign po...
Jared Kushner's Business Conflicts While Serving as Senior White House Adviser: 666 Fifth Avenue Bailout, Foreign Entanglements, and Security Clearance Failures
Emoluments and Constitutional Financial Violations | 2017 - 2021
Jared Kushner, Trump's son-in-law, served as a senior adviser to the president throughout the entirety of Trump's first term while maintaining significant financial interests that intersected with his...
Ghost Bookings at Trump Hotels: Foreign Governments Reserved Rooms They Never Used, Effectively Making Payments to the President's Business
Emoluments and Constitutional Financial Violations | 2017 - 2021
During Donald Trump's presidency, House investigators and journalists documented a pattern in which foreign governments and politically connected organizations booked large blocks of rooms at Trump's ...
Pattern of Threatened Lawsuits Never Filed: Litigation Threats as a Tool of Intimidation Against Accusers, Media Organizations, and Investigators
Treatment of Individuals | 2016 - 2026
Donald Trump has a long-documented pattern of publicly threatening lawsuits that are never filed, using the prospect of litigation as a tool of intimidation against individuals who accuse him of wrong...
Inflated Generosity Claims: Presidential Salary Donations Offset by Agency Cuts, Unsubstantiated Charitable Giving, and Credit for Others' Philanthropy
Charitable and Philanthropic Abuse | 2016 - 2026
Donald Trump has a documented history of publicly claiming charitable generosity that is not supported by the available evidence, including inflated claims about personal donations, publicized preside...
The Trump Effect on Hate Crimes: Academic Studies and FBI Data Documented Increases in Hate Crimes Correlated with Trump's Rhetoric and Rallies
Incitement, Endorsement, and Encouragement of Violence | 2015 - 2021
Multiple academic studies and federal law enforcement statistics documented significant increases in hate crimes in the United States during and after Donald Trump's 2016 presidential campaign and thr...
The Trump International Hotel Lease Sale: $375 Million Exit After Years of Government Patronage Inflated the Property's Value
Emoluments and Constitutional Financial Violations | 2012 - 2022
In May 2022, the Trump Organization completed the sale of its long-term lease on the Trump International Hotel in Washington, D.C. to CGI Merchant Group, a Miami-based investment firm, for $375 millio...
The Trump Tower Baku Project: A Hotel Deal Linked to an Azerbaijani Oligarch Family with Ties to Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps
Financial Fraud and Manipulation | 2012 - 2017
In May 2012, the Trump Organization entered into a licensing and management agreement for a luxury hotel and residential tower in Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan. The project, branded as Trump Interna...
Trump Towers Istanbul: Licensing Fees from Erdogan-Connected Developer While Shaping U.S. Policy Toward Turkey
Emoluments and Constitutional Financial Violations | 2012 - 2019
Trump Towers Istanbul consists of two conjoined skyscrapers in the Sisli district of Istanbul, Turkey, containing a residential tower, an office tower, a shopping mall with approximately 80 shops, and...
Ivanka Trump Clothing Line: Documented Sweatshop Conditions in Indonesian and Chinese Factories
Labor, Contractor, and Employment Abuses | 2012 - 2018
Between 2016 and 2018, multiple investigations by journalists and workers' rights organizations documented labor abuses at overseas factories producing merchandise for the Ivanka Trump brand. The inve...
Trump Organization India Projects: Licensing Deals with Politically Connected Developers and Blurred Lines Between Diplomacy and Business
Financial Fraud and Manipulation | 2011 - 2018
The Trump Organization maintained more business entities in India than in any other foreign country. Between 2014 and 2016, the organization received an estimated $1.6 million to $11 million in licens...
Trump Tower Manila and Trump Tower Punta del Este: Licensing Deals with a Philippine Trade Envoy and a Financially Troubled Uruguayan Project
Financial Fraud and Manipulation | 2011 - 2022
The Trump Organization entered licensing agreements for branded towers in both the Philippines and Uruguay, creating business relationships with politically connected partners in countries where U.S. ...
Charity Golf Tournaments: Trump's Pattern of Hosting Charitable Events at His Courses While Pocketing Fees and Rigging Prize Payouts
Charitable and Philanthropic Abuse | 2010 - 2019
Washington Post reporter David Fahrenthold, whose investigation into Trump's charitable claims won the 2017 Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting, documented a pattern in which Donald Trump used chari...
The Trump Network: A Multi-Level Marketing Vitamin Scheme Built on Pseudoscience and Celebrity Endorsement
Financial Fraud and Manipulation | 2009 - 2012
In 2009, Donald Trump lent his name, image, and promotional endorsement to a multi-level marketing company called the Trump Network, which sold nutritional supplements, including a customized vitamin ...
Eric Trump Foundation and St. Jude: Charity Golf Fundraiser Revenue Redirected Through Trump Organization Properties
Charitable and Philanthropic Abuse | 2007 - 2017
Beginning in 2007, Eric Trump hosted an annual Golf Invitational fundraiser at the Trump National Golf Club in Westchester County, New York, to raise money for St. Jude Children's Research Hospital. E...
Profiting from Charity at Mar-a-Lago: How Trump Charged Nonprofits Full Venue Rates While Claiming Credit for Their Philanthropic Work
Charitable and Philanthropic Abuse | 2006 - 2017
For more than a decade, Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago Club in Palm Beach, Florida, served as a venue for charity galas hosted by prominent nonprofit organizations, including local chapters of the American...
The Trump Network and ACN: Endorsing Multi-Level Marketing Schemes for Millions in Undisclosed Payments
Civil Fraud and Business Deception | 2006 - 2024
Over roughly a decade, Donald Trump lent his name, image, and personal endorsement to at least two multi-level marketing operations: ACN Opportunity, LLC, a telecommunications MLM selling video phones...
Trump Ocean Club Panama: Misrepresented Sales, Criminal Buyers, and a Violent Management Dispute
Financial Fraud and Manipulation | 2006 - 2018
The Trump Ocean Club International Hotel and Tower in Panama City, a 70-story luxury development that opened in 2011, was the subject of multiple fraud allegations involving misrepresented sales figur...
Natasha Stoynoff Accusation: Alleged Forcible Kissing at Mar-a-Lago in 2005, Corroborated by Six Witnesses
Treatment of Individuals: Cruelty, Defamation, and Degradation | 2005 - 2023
Natasha Stoynoff, a staff writer for People magazine, alleged that Donald Trump physically assaulted her in December 2005 during a visit to Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Florida. Stoynoff was at the resor...
Trump Institute: Fraudulent Seminars Using Plagiarized Materials and Deceptive Marketing
Civil Fraud and Business Deception | 2005 - 2010
The Trump Institute was a seminar operation that launched in 2005, licensing the Trump name and image to market real estate investment courses to the public. The business was owned and operated by Ire...
Trump-Branded Real Estate That Defrauded International Buyers: Failed Licensing Projects in Baja Mexico, Fort Lauderdale, Toronto, Panama, and SoHo
Emoluments and Constitutional Financial Violations | 2005 - 2016
Between 2005 and 2016, the Trump Organization licensed the Trump name to real estate developers across multiple countries in a business model that allowed the Trump family to collect licensing fees an...
The Apprentice NDAs: Non-Disclosure Agreements Used to Suppress Information About Trump's Conduct on the Set of His Television Show
Civil Fraud and Business Deception | 2004 - 2024
Contestants, crew members, and staff who participated in "The Apprentice" and "The Celebrity Apprentice," the NBC reality television shows hosted by Donald Trump from 2004 to 2015, were required to si...
Sexist Treatment of Women on The Apprentice: Accounts from Contestants, Crew, and Former Staff
Treatment of Individuals | 2004 - 2018
Between 2004 and 2015, Donald Trump served as the host and executive producer of The Apprentice and its spinoff, The Celebrity Apprentice, on NBC. During that period, multiple former contestants, crew...
The Bayrock Group and Felix Sater: Trump's Business Partnership with a Convicted Felon He Claimed Not to Know
Financial Fraud and Manipulation | 2002 - 2019
Between approximately 2002 and 2011, the Trump Organization maintained an extensive business relationship with the Bayrock Group, a real estate development company headquartered in Trump Tower. Bayroc...
Foreign Government Spending at Trump Properties: Saudi, Kuwaiti, Qatari, and Other Foreign Government Payments Beyond the Washington Hotel
Emoluments and Constitutional Financial Violations | 2001 - 2021
While the Trump International Hotel in Washington, D.C. (documented in EMOL-001) became the most visible venue for foreign government spending at Trump properties, a broader pattern of foreign governm...
Tax Avoidance Patterns: Paying $750 in Federal Income Tax, Reporting Chronic Losses, and Claiming a Disputed $72.9 Million Refund
Financial Fraud and Manipulation | 2000 - 2020
A Pulitzer Prize-winning investigation by The New York Times, published on September 27, 2020, revealed that Donald Trump paid $750 in federal income taxes in both 2016, the year he won the presidency...
Undocumented Workers at Trump Golf Clubs: Years of Employment, Supervisors Providing Fake Documents, and Mass Firings
Labor, Contractor, and Employment Abuses | 2000 - 2019
In December 2018, the New York Times reported that Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, New Jersey, had employed undocumented immigrants for years, with at least some supervisors aware of their imm...
Trump Model Management: Immigration Violations and Financial Exploitation of Foreign Models
Labor, Contractor, and Employment Abuses | 1999 - 2017
Trump Model Management was a modeling agency founded in 1999 and operated under the Trump Organization umbrella until it closed in April 2017. The agency represented models primarily in New York and c...
Undisclosed Debt and Deutsche Bank Entanglements: $421 Million in Personal Loans During the Presidency
Financial Fraud and Manipulation | 1998 - 2021
In September and October 2020, the New York Times published a series of investigative reports based on more than two decades of Trump's federal tax return data. The investigation revealed that Trump w...
Deutsche Bank Lending Relationship: Over $2 Billion in Loans from a Bank Facing Russian Money Laundering Sanctions
Financial Fraud and Manipulation | 1998 - 2021
Deutsche Bank extended over $2 billion in loans to Donald Trump and the Trump Organization across a roughly two-decade period, continuing to lend to him when no other major Western bank would. The rel...
Phantom Philanthropy: Trump's Pattern of Appearing at Charity Events He Did Not Support, Claiming Credit for Donations He Did Not Make, and the 1996 AIDS Nursery Incident
Documented Falsehoods | 1996 - 2016
Washington Post reporter David Fahrenthold documented a pattern in which Donald Trump appeared at charitable events to which he had contributed nothing, positioned himself among genuine donors for pho...
Doe v. Trump: Anonymous Federal Lawsuit Alleging Sexual Assault of a Minor at a Party Hosted by Jeffrey Epstein
Civil Fraud and Business Deception | 1994 - 2016
In April 2016, a woman using the pseudonym "Katie Johnson" filed a federal civil lawsuit in the Central District of California against Donald Trump and Jeffrey Epstein. The complaint alleged that Trum...
Pattern of Unpaid Legal Counsel: Law Firms and Attorneys Alleging Nonpayment for Services
Labor, Contractor, and Employment Abuses | 1990 - 2023
Multiple law firms and individual attorneys have publicly alleged that Donald Trump refused to pay legal bills for services rendered, a pattern that spans decades and extends through his presidency an...
Failed Trump-Branded Ventures: A Pattern of Misleading Marketing Across Vodka, Steaks, Airlines, Mortgage, Magazine, and Other Licensed Products
Financial Fraud and Manipulation | 1989 - 2016
Over a period spanning nearly three decades, Donald Trump lent his name to a series of consumer products and business ventures that were marketed with extravagant claims of quality and luxury, only to...
Trump's Personal Charitable Giving Record: Decades of Inflated Claims, Foundation Funded by Others, and No Personal Donations After 2008
Charitable and Philanthropic Abuse | 1988 - 2018
Over a period of decades, Donald Trump cultivated a public image as a generous philanthropist. Investigative reporting, primarily by David Fahrenthold of the Washington Post, revealed that Trump's per...
SLAPP Litigation: Pattern of Strategic Lawsuits to Silence Journalists, Critics, and Political Opponents
Civil Fraud and Business Deception | 1984 - 2025
Over the course of his career, Donald Trump has filed or threatened thousands of lawsuits. Legal scholars, press freedom organizations, and investigative journalists have documented a pattern in which...
Squeezing Tenants: Trump's Pattern of Using Lease Terms, Harassment, and Litigation to Force Out Renters and Commercial Occupants
Civil Fraud and Business Deception | 1981 - 2020
Over several decades, Donald Trump and entities controlled by him engaged in a documented pattern of using aggressive lease enforcement, building-condition manipulation, and litigation to pressure ten...
Jessica Leeds Accusation: Alleged Groping on a First-Class Flight in the Late 1970s
Treatment of Individuals: Cruelty, Defamation, and Degradation | 1979 - 2023
Jessica Leeds alleged that Donald Trump sexually assaulted her during a first-class flight from either Dallas or Atlanta to New York in the late 1970s. Leeds was in her late 30s at the time and workin...
Inflated Claims About Education and Intelligence: Wharton Transfer Misrepresented, Suppressed Transcripts, and Self-Declared Genius
Documented Falsehoods | 1968 - 2026
Donald Trump has made numerous public claims about his academic record and intelligence that are contradicted by available evidence or that cannot be verified because he has taken active steps to prev...
False Military Claims: The Bone Spurs Diagnosis, the Purple Heart, and Claims of Superior Military Knowledge
Documented Falsehoods | 1968 - 2020
Donald Trump has made a series of false or misleading claims about his relationship to military service that span from the Vietnam War era to his presidency. These claims concern his avoidance of the ...
Trump Family Tax Schemes: $413 Million in Fraudulent Transfers from Fred Trump's Empire
Financial Fraud and Manipulation | 1968 - 2018
On October 2, 2018, the New York Times published a 14,000-word investigation by reporters David Barstow, Susanne Craig, and Russ Buettner documenting the mechanisms through which Fred Trump transferre...