2016 Postmortem
Related: About this forumThe media is finally calling the Bondi donation a bribe and not just pay-to-play! Yes!!!
Source: Vanity Fair
Did Donald Trump Bribe an Attorney General to Protect Trump University?
Now, with just two months until Election Day, the Republican presidential nominees claims to have worked the system to his advantage are coming back to haunt him. Over the Labor Day weekend, Trump faced renewed questioning about why his family foundation had donated $25,000 to a political group supporting Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi in 2013in violation of federal rules preventing foundations from donating to political candidatesat the same time that her office was considering whether to investigate Trump University for alleged fraud. Bondi, according to reporting by the Associated Press in July, personally solicited the political contribution, just before she declined to move forward with the Trump University case. (Trump also donated $35,000 to the gubernatorial campaign of Greg Abbott, three years after the then-Texas attorney general also declined to pursue an investigation into Trump University.)
Trump, who once declared that he could have gotten casino gambling legalized in Florida, if he had wanted to, by donating to the right people and calling favors, denied Monday that his donation to Bondis group was a bribe, and said that he simply admired her for the amazing job she was doing as attorney general.
News of Trumps eyebrow-raising contribution to the pro-Bondi group had been reported earlier this year. It was also previously reported that the Donald J. Trump Foundation had categorized its contribution to the I.R.S. as to another group with a similar-sounding name, effectively disguising the contribution, whether intentionally or not. (Trump paid a $2,500 penalty to the I.R.S. for misreporting the contribution, and the Trump Organization claimed that an employee had mistakenly listed Trumps personal donation as one from the Foundation.) But Trumps latest denial introduces a new twist to the scandal. As the Associated Press revealed earlier this summer, Bondi made a personal phone call to the real-estate mogul to solicit a donation, according to an aide, Marc Reichelderfer. Trumps claim never to have spoken to Bondi means there are now two conflicting stories about how the donation came about. And at least one of the threeTrump, Bondi, and Reichelderferis not telling the truth.
http://www.vanityfair.com/news/2016/09/donald-trump-pam-bondi-donation
DURHAM D
(32,610 posts)Pay to play never made any sense with regard to Bondi.
Blue Idaho
(5,049 posts)The level of scrutiny it gives Sec. Clinton? I seriously doubt it. The anti-Clinton bias runs so deep it's hard to imagine she will ever get a fair shake by the corporate whores that one run "news" operations.
mcar
(42,334 posts)Hillary's emails!!11
randome
(34,845 posts)[hr][font color="blue"][center]"If you're bored then you're boring." -Harvey Danger[/center][/font][hr]
Native
(5,942 posts)The media had hard ons for the potential of Clinton Foundation pay-to-play scenarios, and I guess the terminology just stuck when the Trump bribe miraculously resurfaced in the news. I'm thinking it was easier to throw the accusation back into Trump's court than to do any real journalism and endeavor to call it what it was.
Adrahil
(13,340 posts)Fast Walker 52
(7,723 posts)MagickMuffin
(15,943 posts)Texas deserves better than Corrupt Abbott and the US deserves better than Crooked Corrupt Trump!
Native
(5,942 posts)uponit7771
(90,346 posts)Farmgirl1961
(1,493 posts)HRC or surrogates need to blast a 30 sec ad all over the place.
jiminvegas
(104 posts)It's a bribe.
MurryMom
(107 posts)Combine Trump's $25K bribe to the FL atty general with his $35K to TX atty general Greg Abbott, and you've got a PATTERN of criminal wrongdoing. Let's hear the media pick up this meme!
Maeve
(42,282 posts)He has said the 'system is corrupt' and that no one knows 'the system' like he does....how many dots to realize he's been involved in attempting to bribe people in power????
Native
(5,942 posts)world wide wally
(21,744 posts)They must have hired a pre law student there.
Native
(5,942 posts)http://thehill.com/blogs/pundits-blog/presidential-campaign/294603-donald-trumps-25000-pam-bondi-problem