Was Trump Fibbing About Buying Politicians Then or Now?
For months, the Republican nominee bragged that he had often paid officeholders for favors. Now that questions are swirling about Florida’s attorney general, he says that’s not the case.
Donald Trump had a problem, and Pam Bondi could fix it.
Trump was under legal scrutiny for the so-called Trump University, a series of real-estate seminars that former students have charged was a scam. Bondi, the attorney general of Florida, was deciding whether or not to pursue a fraud investigation into Trump U. Meanwhile, Bondi, a Republican, personally solicited Trump for a donation to an organization backing her reelection.
It was just the situation Trump had described when he explained his past donations to politicians.
“As a businessman and a very substantial donor to very important people, when you give, they do whatever the hell you want them to do,” Trump told The Wall Street Journal in July 2015. “As a businessman, I need that.”
What Trump needed was for Bondi to quash an investigation into Trump University. On September 17, 2013, the pro-Bondi group, And Justice for All, received a $25,000 donation from the Donald J. Trump Foundation. Four days later, Bondi announced that the state of Florida wouldn’t pursue a legal case about Trump University or the Trump Institute, a similar but separate scheme. The donation was revealed by the Associated Press in June, but it’s under fresh scrutiny because the Trump Foundation’s gift was illegal, leading to a $2,500 fine paid to the IRS earlier this year, as The Washington Post reported last week.
more:
http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2016/09/trump-buying-politicians/498749/
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