Courtesy of Pam Martens
Trump’s Lawyer, Jay Sekulow (right), Appears on Fox News Sunday with Chris Wallace in 2017
Jay Sekulow’s charities have been under a harsh glare for almost two decades for funneling vast sums to Sekulow and his family members. Now, one of those charities, the American Center for Law and Justice, has turned up on the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loan database that was released this week by the Small Business Administration. PPP loans were part of the CARES Act passed by Congress to help small businesses with no other source of funding stay alive during the pandemic.
According to the PPP database, the American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ) received a loan of between $1 to $2 million. ACLJ is a nonprofit that lists Jay Sekulow as its CEO, Chief Counsel and Board Member, according to its 2018 public tax filing known as a 990. Sekulow’s brother, Gary, is listed as Vice President of Finance, Chief Financial Officer, and Chief Operating Officer. Gary Sekulow’s son, Adam, is listed as the Director of Major Donors.
In January of this year, Michael Biesecker of the Associated Press reported that AP had “reviewed 10 years of tax returns for the ACLJ and other charities tied to Sekulow, which are released to the public under federal law.” The investigation showed that from 2008 to 2017, “more than $65 million in charitable funds were paid to Sekulow, his wife, his sons, his brother, his sister-in-law, his nephew and corporations they own.”
Unfortunately, no amount of media attention to this dubious charitable money funnel can seem to stop it.
A 2005 investigation by Tony Mauro of Legal Times reported that “in 2001 one of Sekulow’s nonprofit organizations paid a total of $2,374,833 to purchase two homes used primarily by Sekulow and his wife. The same nonprofit also subsidized a third home he uses in North Carolina.” Mauro further reported that “funds from his nonprofits have also been used to lease a private jet.”
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