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Lawyer: Trump’s Charity Spent $10K on His Portrait After No One Else Bid on It

The painting is under scrutiny in a larger lawsuit over alleged improper charity spending.

Lawyers claim President Trump’s charity spent $10,000 on a Trump portrait because no one else would bid on it at a 2014 auction, The New York Post reports. “So Mr. Trump donates $10,000 to start the bidding, and then when the bidding goes on and no one else bids, they’re stuck with the painting,” Trump’s attorney, Alan Futerfas, reportedly told Manhattan Supreme Court Judge Saliann Scarpulla on Thursday. The portrait is reportedly under scrutiny by the New York attorney general as part of alleged “suspect spending” by the Donald J. Trump Foundation. The Post reports that prosecutors claimed the foundation’s money was used to pay off Trump’s “creditors” and boost his presidential campaign. According to the newspaper, Trump’s attorney argued for the case’s dismissal on Thursday. Judge Scarpulla reportedly said she would wait to rule on the case until after a Manhattan appeals court determined whether a sitting president “could be sued in state civil court.”