On Wednesday, campaign manager Kellyanne Conway found herself fending off questions from George Stephanopoulos of ABC on whether her boss used a big political donation to sway Florida’s attorney general into skipping an investigation into Trump University, reports Politico.
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It was a “small event on the lawn. featuring snacks and refreshments, attended by about 50 people”, a Bondi campaign staffer told The Huffington Post.
The controversy surrounds a $25,000 donation Trump’s family foundation made to a super PAC backing the campaign of Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi, the New York Times reports.
“The Trump Foundation’s handling of this illegal political contribution reads like a checklist of tax violations”, said Noah Bookbinder, executive director of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, which filed the complaint.
But Trump made the donation from his charitable foundation, in violation of tax regulations, and paid the penalty, as first reported by The Washington Post last week.
Shortly after Trump, via his foundation, improperly donated $25,000 to a Bondi-affiliated political group, the investigation was magically dropped.
But Trump, in the sky over OH aboard his private plane, told reporters the same day that he never spoke to Bondi and, in response to the criticism of Trump University, said, “Many of the attorney generals turned that case down because I’ll win that case in court”.
“I never even spoke to her about it at all. Never. Many of the AGs turned that case down because I’ll win that case in court, many turned that down.I just have a lot of respect for her and she’s very popular”.
Trump has repeatedly alleged that Clinton participated in such “pay-to-play” deals with Clinton Foundation donors during her tenure as Secretary of State. Around the same time, Trump and his daughter Ivanka donated $125,000 to the Republican Party of Florida-of which Bondi was a primary beneficiary. And you know what?
Spicer called the political donation by Trump’s charity – which is against the law – a “clerical error that was made”.
This may be why Floridians looked to NY for help.
“We are going to convey my top generals and give them a simple instruction”, Trump told the crowd in Greenville, N.C., on Tuesday. “I give to everybody. Of course I asked Donald Trump for a contribution, that’s not what this is about”, Bondi told the Fox Business Network.
Now this is where the pay-to-play allegations come in. It was such a compelling case that the Florida Attorney General’s spokesperson said she was considering joining the New York Attorney General’s fraud case.
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The Clintons are facing a growing backlash that too little has been accomplished in the past five years and that some of the most high-profile projects they have backed – including a just-opened Marriott, another luxury hotel and the industrial park – have helped foreign investors and Haiti’s wealthy elites more than its poor.
