Bondi decided not to get involved against Trump shortly after getting the donation, which the Associated Press said she requested.
Advertisement
O’DONNELL: The story looks bad enough for Donald Trump if it stops there. “When I call, they kiss my a [bleep]”.
TRUMP: I’ve got to give it to them, because when I want something I get it.
“Of course, I asked Donald Trump for a contribution; that’s not what this is about”, she said. In a brief lasting a mere 25 seconds Ramos reported that, “In that moment, Bondi’s office studied the possibility of opening an investigation for fraud on Trump University. Never. Many of the AGs turned that case down because I’ll win that case in court, many turned that down.I just have a lot of respect for her and she’s very popular”. Trump has long acknowledged his contributions to politicians on both sides of the aisle for his own benefit, and he’s surely not the only one who builds relationships this way. The ties between Bondi and Trump deepen, as his foundation gave a pro-Bondi PAC an additional $25,000.
– There was no invitation ever extended to our office from the New York Attorney General’s Office, or to the best of our knowledge, to any other attorney general’s office to join the New York lawsuit.
But around the same time the Florida attorney general’s office was deciding to not pursue a case against Trump, Pam Bondi was pursuing Donald Trump himself for a political donation.
All of this comes as Trump has sought to paint Clinton as a “crooked” politician who has been engaged in “pay-to-play” scandals during her time as secretary of state.
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.
Meanwhile, the liberal watchdog Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington is reportedly planning to file an IRS complaint against the Trump foundation, asking the agency to investigate the $25,000 Bondi campaign gift.
“Donald Trump has no standing whatsoever to question the Clinton Foundation, which works to make AIDS and malaria drugs more accessible, when it’s been proven he uses his own foundation to launder illegal campaign donations”, according to a statement Palmieri released after news broke of the IRS fine. When he later learned of Trump’s connection to Bondi through news reports, he stopped expecting to get an answer.
Trump spokeswoman Hope Hicks clarified details of the conversation one day after the Republican presidential candidate said he never spoke to Bondi about the issue, without providing specifics. Trump was forced to pay a $2,500 fine. Also, on the Trump Foundation’s tax filings from that year, the contribution to Bondi’s political committee is not listed. And she has done an awesome job as the attorney general of Florida. Trump still says he wants to reopen the school once the legal battles are resolved.
Advertisement
The Bondi situation looks like something more than that, with Trump and the attorney general trying to explain it away in different directions. That’s a fair rebuttal: While Trump may have appreciated the decision by Abbott, it’s hard to think that there was some sort of agreement that Trump would wait three years and then give Abbott $35,000.
