“There are pieces of this that we and other Florida news outlets have been hitting on since 2013, and when Bondi endorsed Trump in March”, said Michael Auslen, a Tampa Bay Times Tallahassee bureau reporter.
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But Trump, in the sky over OH aboard his private plane, told reporters the same day that he never spoke to Bondi and, in response to the criticism of Trump University, said, “Many of the attorney generals turned that case down because I’ll win that case in court”.
“[Trump’s] comments were in reference to any discussion about Trump University-not the donation”, spokeswoman Hope Hicks told Politico, admitting that the two may have spoken, but not about the major investigation that was then hanging over Trump’s head. Also, one of Pam Bondi’s former aides declared in June that the attorney general solicited the donation directly, while her office has not responded to any inquires related to this case. “I just have a lot of respect for her as a person”.
The $25,000 donation from the Trump Foundation came as Bondi’s office was looking into complaints about Trump University, which is now the subject of lawsuits in California and NY. It was apparently only a coincidence that the sudden donation on September 17, 2013, came just days after Bondi announced the state was considering an investigation into Trump University for fraud.
Bondi’s office could easily have taken up a case similar to Schneiderman’s.
Clinton defended his Clinton Foundation after Trump attacked it, saying the organization has received top ratings and has saved lives and created jobs.
“The Foundation claimed on its tax returns that it engaged in no political activity and listed a different, permissible group as receiving the contribution”, CREW’s press release said. Hicks said Tuesday that the improper foundation check was the result of a series of clerical errors, and that the billionaire businessman had meant to support Bondi with personal funds. And the Times has a separate front-page news story that explores how the IRS fine “is only the latest slap of his wrist in a decades-long record of shattering political donation limits and circumventing the rules governing contributions and lobbying”.
But the Trump Foundation reported the gift went to an unaffiliated charity in Kansas with the same name, which is obviously untrue. The donation was also reported incorrectly to the IRS, which the Trump team claims was a clerical error. And in 2000, the New York State lobbying commission imposed a $250,000 fine for Mr. Trump’s failing to disclose the full extent of his lobbying of state legislators. “All is squared away”. The group has also filed an IRS complaint against the Foundation for allegedly being used illegally to benefit Trump’s campaign. “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.
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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”. This includes the preparation of derivative works of, or the incorporation of such content into other works.
