The Washington Post reported in March that Trump aides acknowledged that the Trump Foundation made a mistake when it donated the money to Bondi’s political committee.
Advertisement
In contrast, New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman, a Democrat, filed a still-pending lawsuit in 2013 alleging that Trump University bilked students out of $40 million.
The complaints were filed with the Florida Commission on Ethics, Florida Elections Commission and Florida Bar by J. Whitfield Larrabee, a Boston lawyer who said he acted after reading news accounts of Bondi having solicited a $25,000 donation from the Donald J. Trump Foundation in September 2013. She ultimately decided not to pursue the case, saying there were insufficient grounds. Here’s what went down: In 2016, Bondi announced that Florida would join a fraud lawsuit in NY against Trump University.
This week, The Associated Press revealed that Ms. Bondi herself went to Mr. Trump, hat in hand, and asked him for a campaign donation.
The AP said Bondi declined requests for an interview Monday and referred questions to Marc Reichelderfer, a political consultant who worked on her re-election effort.
Reichelderfer said that Bondi consulted with Trump “several weeks” prior to her office’s announcement that it was considering joining a NY state investigation into Trump University.
Ms. Bondi, who publicly touted her support for Mr. Trump before the Florida primary in March – is she campaigning for US attorney general? – remains mum on the donation, except to say, “I never, nor was my office, investigating him”.
“The process took at least several weeks, from the time they spoke to the time they received the contribution”, Reichelderfer told the AP.
Bondi, who has endorsed Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee for the November 8 presidential election, yesterday called the AP report misleading. Two days after receiving the donation, the Florida attorney general dropped her investigation, stating that there wasn’t enough evidence to support going any further with the investigation. Many alleged that they paid money for training materials and personalized instruction which were never delivered.
Read: Paul Ryan rips Donald Trump’s “racist” comment on judge in Trump University case.
Trump University is entangled in three separate lawsuits charging that the real-estate institution was a scam.
Bondi was not the only Republican attorney general to shy away from suing Trump, the AP writes.
Advertisement
“The unthinkable has happened – the media’s obsession with Donald Trump is now leading them to highlight the job then-Attorney General Abbott did in protecting Texas consumers”, spokesman Matt Hirsch told the Houston Chronicle.
