This article is more than 2 years old

This article is more than 2 years old

A day after telling a federal court that Donald Trump directed him to violate campaign finance laws, Michael Cohen was hit with a subpoena in a separate investigation in New York state of Trump’s charitable foundation.

The New York state attorney general, Barbara Underwood, sued the Donald J Trump charitable foundation, Donald Trump and three of his children in June for allegedly violating state charity laws.

“The foundation is little more than an empty shell that functions with no oversight from its board of directors,” the lawsuit alleged.

Simultaneous to the announcement of the subpoena on Wednesday, Cohen’s lead lawyer, Lanny Davis, announced the launch of an online crowdsourced fundraiser called the Michael Cohen Truth Fund to raise money for Cohen’s legal bills. The fundraising goal is $500,000.

“Michael decided to put his family and his country first,” read the fundraising pitch. “Now Michael needs your financial help – to pay his legal fees.”

Cohen, who was for 10 years Trump’s trusted lieutenant, has pleaded guilty to tax fraud, bank fraud and campaign finance violations. However he has not yet been sentenced, and he would require additional legal representation in any negotiation with prosecutors to enter a potential cooperation agreement in the special counsel’s Russia investigation or other matters.

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As a longtime senior executive in the Trump Organization, Cohen could provide valuable testimony in the New York state case about how the Trump Foundation operated.

Prosecutors allege that Trump had not contributed to the charity since 2008 but used millions contributed tax-free by outside donors as “little more than a checkbook” to settle legal claims against his Mar-a-Lago resort and against Trump National Golf Club.

The suit additionally alleges that the charity paid $10,000 to buy a painting of Trump displayed at the Trump National Doral golf course, and that it operated as a wing of the Trump presidential campaign and not independently as a charity.

“Trump ran the foundation according to whim, rather than law,” the suit said.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Prosecutors allege Trump ran the charity as ‘little more than a checkbook’. Photograph: Pablo Martínez Monsiváis/AP

The suit seeks $2.8m in restitution and penalties from Trump and asks for the distribution of $1m in assets to other charities. The lawsuit also seeks to dissolve the Trump Foundation and bar the Trumps from serving on the boards of any charitable organizations – Trump senior for 10 years and three of his children for one year.

In addition to Trump, the lawsuit names his children Donald Jr, Ivanka and Eric.

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Trump has denied all wrongdoing. In tweets after the suit was filed, he blamed it on “the sleazy New York Democrats” and said “I won’t settle this case!”

One potentially threatening aspect of the suit for Trump and his children is that, should a criminal case develop, any conviction would not be pardonable by the president, who can pardon only federal crimes under the constitution.

Additionally, a state could indict a sitting president – a step the justice department has signaled it would not do, tweeted Ryan Goodman, a former special counsel in the department of defense and editor of the Just Security blog.

“A good time to remember that even if [special counsel Robert] Mueller’s hands are tied by the Department of Justice’s legal opinions – saying that a sitting president can’t be indicted – state attorney generals aren’t,” wrote Goodman. “It would be for them and the courts to decide.”