http://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/281800-trump-details-donations-to-veterans-amid-scrutiny By Kristina Wong and Jonathan Swan - 05/31/16 07:59 PM EDT
Donald Trump on Tuesday released a full list of veterans groups he says received $5.6 million in cash from him and his wealthy friends.
The disclosure came after weeks of intense scrutiny over the presumptive GOP presidential nominee’s claims that he raised more than $6 million for veterans.
But critics, including Hillary Clinton, hit Trump on Tuesday, claiming he had been shamed into making the contributions by the media pressure.
About a dozen veterans groups contacted by The Associated Press said checks were cut the day of a prominent report questioning Trump’s donations.
Several of the groups reached by The Hill, including the Bob Woodruff Foundation, also said they were contacted within the last week.
The Donald J. Trump Foundation first contacted the Bob Woodruff Foundation last Tuesday. A day later, a $75,000 check showed up at the office, according to Sam Kille, the foundation’s communications manager.
“We received a check for $75,000 last Wednesday,” Kille told The Hill. “We were told a day before a check would be coming.”
Sue Boulhosa, executive director of the Marine Corps-Law Enforcement Foundation, said Trump sent a $1 million donation last week from his personal back account.
“We received a $1 million check from his personal account,” Boulhosa said in a telephone interview Tuesday. “The check is dated May 24.”
Trump, in a combative press conference Tuesday at Trump Tower in Manhattan, said he had raised “close to 6 million dollars” for veterans groups, four months after making the pledge in late January. Trump had held a Jan. 28 fundraiser for veterans instead of attending a GOP debate.
“I have never received such bad publicity for doing such a good job,” Trump told the media.
He gave a number of different reasons why the donations were announced on Tuesday, including that he needed time to vet the groups.
“You have to go through a process. When you send checks for hundreds of thousands of dollars to people and to companies and to groups that you’ve never heard of, charitable organizations, you have to vet it,” Trump said.
“You send people out, you do a lot of work,” he continued. “It’s not clear to the organizations how long the Trump Foundation took to vet them beforehand.”
The National Military Family Association said it was contacted on May 18 by the Trump Foundation and asked to confirm its name and address.
“It was the first we’d ever heard from them,” said Besa Pinchotti, the group’s communications director.
A check for $75,000 for the group came in the mail a week later, on May 25, she said.
Trump said Tuesday that he didn’t disclose the recipients sooner because they were not “anybody’s business” and because he wanted to respect the groups’ privacy.
Two other groups contacted by The Hill said they were not notified ahead of time by the Trump campaign that the donations were going to be made public on Tuesday. But they said they had no problems with him sharing the donations publicly.
Kille said the Woodruff Foundation was not aware that Trump was going to announce the donation until he began speaking, but the organization had no issues with his decision.
“I got a text message today ... while he was doing it,” said Clifford Sosamon, executive director of Honor Courage Commitment.
Some of Trump’s donations, though, were made months ago, including to 22KILL, an organization started by Honor Courage Commitment that seeks to keep the bonds between veterans when they leave military service.
Sosamon said Trump donated $200,000 to the organization “sometime in February.”
He said the Trump Foundation had reached out to 22KILL the night of Trump’s Jan. 28 veterans fundraiser to request the group’s employer identification number and tax number, before cutting a check the next month.
Sosamon said 22KILL’s executive director, Jake Schick, had met Trump through a mutual friend, John Wayne Walding.
Walding, a former Army Special Forces soldier who was injured in Afghanistan and owns his own company, was a family friend of the Trumps’ and was invited onstage at the Jan. 28 fundraiser.
Walding also invited Schick onstage, Sosamon said.
Boulhosa from the Marine Corps-Law Enforcement Foundation said they also received $100,000 in March from the Trump Foundation.
That, combined with the $1 million check Trump sent them last week, gave the group a total of $1.1 million — by far the largest of the 41 donations Trump announced Tuesday.
Steven Wilson, assistant national director of communications for Disabled American Veterans Charitable Service Trust, said Trump had raised $115,000 for his campaign over the course of several months.
Wilson provided The Hill with a timeline of payments.
On February 12, Wilson’s group received a check for $100,000 from the Donald J. Trump Foundation, he said via email. He added that on March 16 and 22, they received letters from the foundation accompanied by additional checks of $5,000 and $10,000 from other entities.
Trump said on Tuesday he would be prepared to show the press certified checks to prove he gave the money to the other groups on his list.
Without such checks as proof, the total amount of money claimed by Trump is impossible to verify, as some nonprofits have a policy of keeping their donors’ identities hidden.
The Hill contacted the Navy Seal Foundation, for which Trump said he raised $465,000
“We don’t give out any donor information,” a spokesman said.
