And in another surprising twist, making a vague remark about whether he ever talked with Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi about his improper $25,000 donation – which arrived as her office opted not to join a fraud investigation into Trump University – failed to put the controversy to rest.
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Bondi had been investigating allegations against Trump University in Florida, and in September 2013 – three days before the Trump foundation donation to a pro-Bondi PAC – the Orlando Sentinel reported that her office was considering joining the NY lawsuit against Trump University.
And today, Steve Eder and Megan Twohey have a piece in the New York Times that provides some critical context for the Florida story, which is that Trump has not only been a major donor to all kinds of politicians, he has also run afoul of the law with his contributions before. The check to Bondi’s PAC, furthermore, was written by the Trump Foundation, which is an illegal political contribution.
Trump said he’s provided the “most extensive financial review of anybody in the history of politics” and because he’s under a “routine audit”, he’s not able to make his tax returns public.
Bondi, has been one of Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump’s most vocal supporters often taking the stage to warm up the crowd before events.
In other cases during the 1980s, Trump gave loan and set up subsidiaries which skirted campaign finance limits. Of all of the 50 states where this was brought up, only one state pursued it: “New York”, Spicer said Tuesday.
But Gelber says even if there was no quid pro quo, Bondi was playing with fire by soliciting a contribution from Trump. Reichelfelder said that Bondi was unaware of dozens of consumer complaints received by her office about Trump’s real-estate seminars at the time she requested the donation.
Bondi received a June 14 letter from the Florida Commission on Ethics, notifying her of the complaint, which is confidential by law until a probable cause finding is made or the complaint is dismissed. And despite reports that Bondi reached out to the real estate mogul to seek financial assistance for her struggling 2014 reelection campaign, Trump claimed on Monday that he “never spoke” to Bondi about donation.
“I’ve just known Pam Bondi for years”, he added. “When I need something from them two years later, three years later, I call them, they are there for me”, Trump said at a Republican debate last August hosted by Fox News. Lafrate contacted the Florida attorney general’s office as early as 2008 but said he did not receive a response.
The contribution triggered allegations then that it steered Bondi’s office away from investigating Trump University.
Wednesday morning MSNBC’s Mika Brzezinski went off on Trump and the scam, and what looks like Trump’s apparent bribery of Bondi.
Yesterday, Trump dismissed allegations of impropriety. saying his foundation’s $25,000 donation to Florida’s attorney general had nothing to do with her office mulling an investigation into Trump University.
The first documented contribution to Bondi from the Trumps was on September 10, 2013, when daughter Ivanka gave $500 – about two weeks after Schneiderman filed his suit in NY that Bondi’s office was reviewing. “And he got a deal to not be investigated in an area that’s a real weak spot, and that’s Trump University”. The show touted Bondi as the first female attorney general of Florida and the only Republican woman attorney general anywhere in the country.
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“I promise”, Trump retorted. “Never spoken to her about it, never”.
