logo
    • Magazine
    • Membership
    • Donate
  • Racial Justice
  • Economic Justice
    • Collections
  • Climate Justice
  • Health Justice
  • Leadership
  • CONTENT TYPES
  • Subscribe
  • Webinars
    • Upcoming Webinars
    • Complimentary Webinars
    • Premium On-Demand Webinars
  • Membership
  • Submissions

Wallace Global Fund Fires Law Firm for Aiding Trump’s “Ethical Carnage”

Ruth McCambridge
April 3, 2017
Share
Tweet
Share
Email
Print
“That Way” by Justin Baeder

April 1, 2017; Slate

“Americans deserve a president of undivided loyalty. Your firm has denied them that. We cannot be complicit in that.”


Scott Wallace is the co-chair of the D.C.-based Wallace Global Fund, and the author of a March 28th termination letter to a law firm representing that foundation—the same firm that helped Donald Trump create a trust to enable his sons to manage his business interests while in office.

Wallace calls the trust a “fig leaf” arrangement designed to enable self-dealing.   “It is painfully obvious,” he writes to the firm’s chair, Jami McKeon, “that Trump is using his office for financial gain. And Morgan Lewis is enabling and legitimizing this.”

So, writes Wallace, the foundation can no longer use the services of Morgan Lewis—also called Morgan, Lewis & Bockius—because the firm has facilitated “ethical carnage” (detailed in the letter) and that does not jibe with the foundation’s intention to promote open and accountable governance.

Sign up for our free newsletters

Subscribe to NPQ's newsletters to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

By signing up, you agree to our privacy policy and terms of use, and to receive messages from NPQ and our partners.

The sham “trust” arrangement which Morgan Lewis has blessed—enabling unchecked self-dealing, flouting of the Constitution, and concealment of the truth from the public that President Trump has sworn to serve—is fundamentally inconsistent with (the fund’s) values and, we fear, destructive to the fabric of our democracy.

The letter is quite explicitly critical of the legal advice (or legitimization of a “complete non-solution”) given to Trump by Morgan Lewis partner Sherri Dillon.

We believe that the legal advice given to him by your partner is not just simplistic and ill-founded, but that it empowers and even encourages impeachable offenses and undetectable financial conflicts of interest by America’s highest official, and thus is an unprecedented invitation to corruption and assault on our democracy.

The letter goes on to list ways in which Trump’s continuing conflicts of interest and self-dealing violate the Constitution’s Emoluments Clause and characterizes the trust managed by Trump’s sons as “an illusion of protection against the President using his office for personal gain.” Finally, it suggests that the firm “think about larger principles than simple zealous representation of a client.”

Dahlia Lithwick concludes her article in Slate with, “Sometimes just calling corruption ‘corruption’ is enough to refocus the mind.” This simple letter reminds us how dramatically our conception of what is normal has been redefined in recent months.—Ruth McCambridge

Share
Tweet
Share
Email
Print
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Ruth McCambridge

Ruth is Editor Emerita of the Nonprofit Quarterly. Her background includes forty-five years of experience in nonprofits, primarily in organizations that mix grassroots community work with policy change. Beginning in the mid-1980s, Ruth spent a decade at the Boston Foundation, developing and implementing capacity building programs and advocating for grantmaking attention to constituent involvement.

More about: Donald Trumpfoundation effectivenessgrantmakingManagement and LeadershipNonprofit NewsOrganizational ethics

Become a member

Support independent journalism and knowledge creation for civil society. Become a member of Nonprofit Quarterly.

Members receive unlimited access to our archived and upcoming digital content. NPQ is the leading journal in the nonprofit sector written by social change experts. Gain access to our exclusive library of online courses led by thought leaders and educators providing contextualized information to help nonprofit practitioners make sense of changing conditions and improve infra-structure in their organizations.

Join Today
logo logo logo logo logo
See comments

NPQ_Winter_2022Subscribe Today
You might also like
Hierarchy and Justice
Cyndi Suarez
Salvadoran Foreign Agent Law Threatens Human Rights Movements
Devon Kearney
Charitable Tax Reform: Why Half Measures Won’t Curb Plutocracy
Alan Davis
Healing-Centered Leadership: A Path to Transformation
Shawn A. Ginwright
Into the Fire: Lessons from Movement Conflicts
Ingrid Benedict, Weyam Ghadbian and Jovida Ross
How Nonprofits Can Truly Advance Change
Hildy Gottlieb

Popular Webinars

Remaking the Economy

Black Food Sovereignty, Community Stories

Register Now

Combating Disinformation and Misinformation in 21st-Century Social Movements

Register Now

Remaking the Economy

Closing the Racial Wealth Gap

Register Now
You might also like
Hierarchy and Justice
Cyndi Suarez
Salvadoran Foreign Agent Law Threatens Human Rights...
Devon Kearney
Charitable Tax Reform: Why Half Measures Won’t Curb...
Alan Davis

Like what you see?

Subscribe to the NPQ newsletter to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

See our newsletters

By signing up, you agree to our privacy policy and terms of use, and to receive messages from NPQ and our partners.

Independent & in your mailbox.

Subscribe today and get a full year of NPQ for just $59.

subscribe
  • About
  • Contact
  • Advertise
  • Copyright
  • Careers

We are using cookies to give you the best experience on our website.

 

Non Profit News | Nonprofit Quarterly
Powered by  GDPR Cookie Compliance
Privacy Overview

This website uses cookies so that we can provide you with the best user experience possible. Cookie information is stored in your browser and performs functions such as recognising you when you return to our website and helping our team to understand which sections of the website you find most interesting and useful.

Strictly Necessary Cookies

Strictly Necessary Cookie should be enabled at all times so that we can save your preferences for cookie settings.

If you disable this cookie, we will not be able to save your preferences. This means that every time you visit this website you will need to enable or disable cookies again.