A Christian nonprofit run by Jay Sekulow, the most visible member of President Donald Trump’s private legal team, targeted poor and unemployed donors to raise millions of dollars for Sekulow’s family and their businesses, the Guardian reported Tuesday.
Documents obtained by the Guardian show that, in the midst of the Great Recession, Sekulow signed off on contracts that instructed telemarketers for Christian Advocates Serving Evangelism (CASE) to urge retirees on fixed incomes and others who said they could not afford a donation to find it in their hearts to contribute a “sacrificial gift.”
CASE raises tens of millions of dollars every year, primarily through small direct-mail donations. The Guardian reported that money goes directly to Sekulow, his wife—who has made more than $1.2 milion as CASE’s treasurer and secretary—his sons, brother, sister-in-law, and other firms associated with the family, as well as to finance loans and media-production ventures associated with the family.
Sekulow did not respond to the publication’s questions about his charity work, but his spokesman sent over an emailed response about CASE and the American Center for Legal Justice (ACLJ), another charity Sekulow runs.
“The financial arrangements between the ACLJ, Case and all related entities are regularly reviewed by outside independent compensation experts and have been determined to be reasonable,” the statement from spokesman Gene Kapp read. “In addition, each entity has annual independent outside audits performed by certified public accounting firms. Further, the IRS has previously conducted audits of the ACLJ and Case and found them to be in full compliance of all applicable tax laws.”
Experts in non-profit law told the Guardian that the Sekulows’ arrangement could violate a federal law prohibiting nonprofits from paying excessive benefits to their top executives.
Sekulow is a conservative Christian lawyer who has made his name campaigning against abortion rights and same-sex marriage. He was recently dispatched for a puzzling round of cable news interviews in which he first said it was absurd that Trump was under investigation for potential obstruction of justice as part of the federal investigation into Russia’s interference in the 2016 election, then insisted moments later that the President was not under investigation at all.
