Federal court charges Trump donor with obstruction of justice News
© Wikimedia (Michael J DAmato)
Federal court charges Trump donor with obstruction of justice

Trump donor, Imaad Zuberi, was charged in federal court Tuesday with obstruction of justice in a federal campaign finance investigation. The investigation centered around the source of the money Zuberi donated to the 58th Presidential Inaugural Committee (PIC).  Zuberi made a $900,000 donation to the PIC under the title of his company, Avenue Ventures. However, the investigation found that another individual contributed to the sum with a $50,000 check.  Zuberi did not disclose this sum or donor in his donation.

The charges filed explained Zuberi’s actions to cover his improper donation:

On or about February 25, 2019, … the defendant, corruptly did alter, destroy, mutilate and conceal a record, document, and other object, and did attempt to do so, with the intent to impair the object’s integrity and availability for use in an official proceeding, and … attempted to conceal $50,000 that he had used to make a donation to the PIC but had failed to properly disclose by returning the money to Donor-1 and back-dating the refund check to make it appear that the money had been refunded before ZUBERI learned of the federal investigation into his donation.

Zuberi will be tried in the Southern District of New York and faces other federal, criminal charges in California related to foreign donors in campaign finance.