NY attorney general just ‘doing my job’ with Trump Foundation investigation

New York’s attorney general is defending his office’s investigation of Donald Trump’s charitable foundation despite his support for Hillary Clinton.

“If I’m a traffic cop, but I’m a Democrat, and he speeds by me, I have to give him a ticket,” Eric Schneiderman said on “CBS This Morning” Wednesday. “It’s that simple.

{mosads}“Charities have to follow the rules,” he added. “You can’t say, ‘I gave money to a charity’ and not give the money to a charity. You can’t give money to a political campaign from a charity.

“I’m just following the rules like with any other charity. We never had a press conference. We never did any grandstanding. This is just me doing my job.”

A source familiar with the matter told The Hill late Tuesday Schneiderman’s office has “opened an inquiry into troubling transactions with the Trump Foundation that have recently come into light.”

The Donald J. Trump Foundation is under rising scrutiny of its reporting and spending practices now that Trump is the GOP’s presidential nominee.

Schneiderman on Wednesday said his office is required to investigate some of the accusations leveled against the foundation.

“We’re enforcing the New York laws on charity,” he said. “We’re looking into it as we have an obligation to do. We scrutinize.”

Schneiderman added that his office is “absolutely” scrutinizing the Clinton Foundation in a similar fashion.

“The issue that’s been raised there is why they haven’t been required to disclose donations from a foreign government,” he said.

“And the answer is very simply: The New York State Attorney General’s Office has never asked any non-profit to disclose contributions from foreign governments. To single out the Clinton Foundation would be grossly unfair and say we’re changing the rules for this one foundation in the middle of the game.”

Trump campaign spokesman Jason Miller late Tuesday called Schneiderman a “partisan hack” for Clinton, the Democratic nominee.

NBC News reported late Tuesday that correspondence between Schneiderman’s office and the Trump Foundation began early last June.

The New York Attorney General’s Charities Bureau is reportedly concerned about a $25,000 donation Trump’s foundation made in September 2013 to “Justice for All,” a group supporting Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi (R).

At the time, Bondi was weighing whether to pursue an investigation into accusations of fraud at Trump University. She ultimately declined to bring charges against the for-profit education program.

Reports earlier this month said that Trump’s foundation did not list a donation to the group supporting Bondi in its 2013 tax filings.

Trump paid a $2,500 fine to the IRS earlier this year over the contribution, while also reimbursing his foundation from his personal account.