Donors duped into giving cash to Trump-backed group instead of bipartisan America 250 team: report

Some philanthropists seeking to support America’s 250th anniversary celebrations were misled into paying out their donations to a partisan initiative backed by the White House, House Democrats have alleged.

The donors had meant to contribute to America250, a congressionally-chartered board founded a decade ago. But instead they were given routing and account numbers that directed funds to Freedom 250, President Trump’s own organizing effort established last December, according to Democrats from the House Natural Resources Committee.

The lawmakers made their claims in a new report published Thursday in which they declined to name the donors or whistleblowers they interviewed as part of their investigation.

However, they have said their report exposes some of the strategies employed by Trump officials to turn a bipartisan celebration of the signing of the Declaration of Independence and the birth of the United States into a lucrative opportunity for the president’s allies.

“I’m a lawyer, and I know better than to pronounce that a crime has been committed,” California Democratic Rep. Jared Huffman told The Washington Post. “But I do know the elements of fraud, and there is evidence of all those elements here.”

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