Trump donated $25,000 (£19,000) through his charity to a group supporting attorney general Pam Bondi in 2013, just weeks before she opted not to join a NY state court action charging the Trump business with fraud.
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Some victims contacted the office of Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi and her predecessor.
Trump paid a $2,500 fine to the IRS because charitable foundations are not allowed to make political contributions under tax law. IRS rules state that charitable organizations are “absolutely prohibited from directly or indirectly participating in, or intervening in, any political campaign”. Then it blamed a clerical error and said it should have come from Mr. Trump’s account, not from his foundation.
“One day, Bondi’s office told this newspaper it was reviewing complaints from Floridians who said they felt swindled by the Trump Institute affiliate of Trump University“, Scott Maxwell, a columnist at the Orlando Sentinel, which broke the original story of Trump’s donation, wrote on Tuesday.
Mr. Trump has insisted that he never spoke to her about the investigations. As I noted in a June post that was based on court documents, even some of Trump University’s own employees regarded it as giant ripoff. Bondi is a “fine person, beyond reproach”. Never spoke to her about that at all. So it is a little jarring to see Trump and his campaign trying to spin away what looks like an obvious case of doing exactly what he has told the public he has done over and over again. Together, both Trumps also donated $125,000 to the Republican Party of Florida, which The Huffington Post reports was the largest single source of funds for Bondi’s campaign. Trump has bragged that over the years he took advantage of the system by using his money to influence peddle. “I don’t think this was a lengthy, memorable call”, she told the Associated Press. When I call, they kiss my ass. Trump and Stone paid the largest fine levied by NY lobbying regulators at that time, while never admitting guilt. Bondi would subsequently announce that she would not join the fraud lawsuit. Because if Clinton had refused to release her tax returns…well, you can imagine what those headlines would be.
As for political officials, Trump boasted during the first primary debate that he donates frequently to candidates and then expects them to help him when he needs it.
Donald Trump is embroiled in yet another scandal involving his defunct for-profit college Trump University.
But it wasn’t until this month that anyone knew the Donald J. Trump Foundation had actually been punished for breaking the law with that donation to Bondi. Trump spends much of his time in Florida, he’s owned Mar-a-Lago since 1985, and there could be plenty of reasons why a man in his position would want to curry favor with local politicians.
But Trump aides pointed to a string of articles showing that Trump was never accused of wrongdoing by the NY ethics panel in 1988 and did not admit any wrongdoing after paying the fine in the Mohawk tribe case.
Nonetheless, Trump and Bondi have continued their highly symbiotic relationship, with Bondi endorsing his presidential candidacy and playing attack dog against Hillary Clinton in a stemwinder of a speech at the Republican National Convention a few weeks ago.
TRUMP: I’ve just known Pam Bondi for years.
Trump and Bondi have denied any connection between his donation and Bondi’s decision not to proceed with an investigation.
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And a few days later, this contribution from the Trump Foundation comes in to a group supporting Attorney General Bondi.
