Another case, which was brought by Eric Schneiderman, New York’s Attorney General, is also pending.
Advertisement
To set the stage, here’s the Florida story in brief: In 2013, Bondi’s office had received complaints from Floridians who said that Trump University scammed them out of thousands of dollars, and the office was considering joining a lawsuit that the New York State attorney general had filed against Trump U. While those deliberations were going on, Bondi called Trump and asked him for a $25,000 contribution to her PAC.
“I’ve just known Pam Bondi for years”. Now what at the time might have been a simple campaign check has taken on a life of its own. “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”, the A.P. story went on. When he later learned of Trump’s connection to Bondi through news reports, he stopped expecting to get an answer. Regardless of how Bondi is blaming Clinton for – who knows what – the Miami Herald is now calling for an investigation over how Bondi dropped an investigation for Trump cash. After a period of deliberation, Florida did not join the lawsuit, by coincidence; the timeline equated a campaign donation.
Though the Trump campaign has maintained that his donation to Bondi was not related to his now defunct university, the paper trail certainly raises questions.
“I never spoke to her, first of all, she’s a fine person beyond reproach”, Trump said Monday.
“I’ve just known Pam Bondi for years”, he added. “Never spoken to her about it”.
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.
The Republican candidate’s press secretary confirmed to multiple news outlets that Trump paid a $2,500 fine over the donation to a campaign group linked to AG Pam Bondi. In the words of the Washington Post, “the prohibited gift was, in effect, replaced with an innocent sounding but non-existent donation”.
HORSLEY: According to The Washington Post, Trump recently reimbursed his foundation for the $25,000 political contribution.
But Gelber says even if there was no quid pro quo, Bondi was playing with fire by soliciting a contribution from Trump.
But over the past 48 hours it has generated major news throughout the country.
Donald Trump has switched from criticising contributions to the Clinton Foundation to defending an illegal campaign contribution from his own charity to a Florida attorney general who had been considering launching an investigation into the controversial Trump University.
In an all-too-ironic twist, reports on the donation to Bondi arrive amidst Trump launching “pay-to-play” accusations against Hillary Clinton.
He has been hammering Democratic rival Hillary Clinton over alleged “pay to play” schemes involving the State Department and the Clinton Foundation. But it was a violation of tax laws for his charity to make a political contribution-that’s why he had to pay a penalty to the I.R.S.
Advertisement
During the August 2015 Republican debate in Cleveland, Trump said that he contributed to politicians because they would respond in kind.
