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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Bondi’s political group received the contribution just days after the attorney general’s office said it was looking into allegations in a lawsuit by New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman that accused Trump University of fraudulent conduct.
Since he began his run for the White House, Trump has repeatedly claimed that Bondi is merely someone he has supported politically. “All political contributions are publicly reported and a matter of public record, as are all foundation expenditures”. At the time, Trump did not disclose that the donations all came from him, and regulators did not identify the companies as being part of Trump’s real estate empire. She hasn’t been charged with any violations. “Trump-Foundation-and-Donald-J. -Trump-IRS-complaint-9-7-16.pdf”>calling for an investigation into whether the Trump Foundation violated its tax-exempt status in donating to the pro-Bondi PAC.
And after the check came in, Bondi’s office nixed suing Trump, citing insufficient grounds to proceed. She has said the issues about Trump University first surfaced under her predecessor and never reached her desk, which raises more questions about her management.
Bondi’s spokesman told The Associated Press in June that she personally solicited the $25,000 donation from Trump during a 2013 phone call. Mr. Trump’s campaign has blamed clerical mix-ups for the confusion. “He has a residence in Florida”, she said.
In her speech at the Republican National Convention in July, Bondi called Election Day “a day of reckoning for all those who have abused their power” and “the day when we the people will take back our government”. “You said, ‘when you give, they do whatever the hell you want them to do”, the moderator prodded.
But the Trump Foundation reported the gift went to an unaffiliated charity in Kansas with the same name, which is obviously untrue. “He uses his foundation’s money to pay off your attorney general”, Clinton told the crowd, according to Politico. It was not clear immediately whether the foundation has yet amended its tax returns to correct the reporting error.
That’s when Bondi announced she wasn’t going forward with a lawsuit against Trump and wouldn’t join Schneiderman’s lawsuit, citing insufficient evidence to prosecute the NY real estate mogul, according to the AP.
Repaying the money shouldn’t obviate the 10% tax on self-dealing, according to a blog post by Philip Hackney, a law professor at Louisiana State University. “To do so would be to make 4941 easy to get around”. Many report getting little to nothing for their money.
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In the same decade, Trump was called before a New York state commission investigating public corruption and campaign donations to discuss donations he made to Andrew Stein, who was running for New York City Council president at the time.
