Schneiderman said his office has been investigating The Donald J. Trump Foundation over concerns the foundation “may have engaged in some impropriety”.
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Even more intriguing are five donations listed by the Trump Foundation that apparently were never paid, reports the Post.
Schneiderman announced his lawsuit against Trump University on August 25, 2013.
The Trump Foundation contribution raises questions about whether other laws were broken, including the prohibition against self-dealing, which is using foundation funds to benefit a foundation principal.
Trump Foundation gave Bondi’s political committee, And Justice for All, $25,000 in September 2013 around the same time her office decided not to pursue an investigation into Trump University. “These payments may have influenced Mrs. Bondi’s official decision not to participate in litigation against Mr. Trump”, the letter reads.
Trump running mate Mike Pence told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer Monday that Trump has donated millions of dollars to charity.
Bondi’s office was not immediately available for comment.
Trump has boasted in the past that he expects and receives favors from politicians to whom he gives money.
The Trump campaign has previously denied any wrongdoing and downplayed “pay to play” allegations.
“We’ve inquired into it”, Schneiderman said in an interview on CNN.
Democrats have cited an Associated Press report that Ms Bondi solicited the donation personally, around the time her office was debating whether to join NY state’s investigation into Trump’s real estate training school in Florida.
A spokesman for the Trump campaign said the inquiry was motivated by politics.
The Trump campaign hammered Schneiderman as a “partisan hack who has turned a blind eye to the Clinton Foundation for years”.
Trump’s charity, the Donald J. Trump Foundation, gave $25,000 to Bondi’s campaign committee on September 17, 2013, just days after her spokesperson told the Orlando Sentinel she was considering whether to join the investigation. Charities like the Trump Foundation can not contribute to political causes.
Hicks, in her statement, also took issue with a Washington Post story that ran Sunday, explaining the unusual qualities of the Trump Foundation. “We have already reached out to the Trump Foundation to ask them to actually SEND us the $10,000 that they claimed they sent in 2008!” he wrote in an email.
In 2009, Trump reportedly spent $20,000 meant for charitable purposes on a six-foot-tall painting of himself.
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FILE- In this May 23, 2005 file photo, real estate mogul and Reality TV star, now Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump listens at left as Michael Sexton introduces him at a news conference in NY where he announced the establishment of Trump University. At the time Trump University was being investigated.
