Democratic members of the House Judiciary Committee called Wednesday for the Department of Justice to investigate the Trump Foundation’s 2013 donation in support of the campaign of Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi.
The Democrats’ press conference came after Tuesday’s announcement that the New York’s Democratic Attorney General Eric Schneiderman has opened inquiry into the Donald J. Trump Foundation.
Raising the prospect of criminal violations, Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-NY) suggested that the timing of the Trump Foundation’s $25,000 donation and the failure of Bondi’s office to sue the now-defunct Trump University was highly suspicious.
“These facts beg the question of whether or not these payments influenced and were intended to influence Mrs. Bondi’s official decision not to participate in litigation against Mr. Trump and Trump University,” Nadler said. “If they did, then a number of criminal statutes would appear to have been violated by this course of conduct, including those pertaining to bribery, perjury, and deliberate failure to disclose transfers to the IRS.”
Trump paid a $2,500 penalty this year because his foundations donation to a political campaign violated IRS rules. Trump and Bondi have denied any connection between the donation and Trump University.
“There is a stink rotting in the Attorney General’s office in Florida,” said Rep. Debbie Wasserman-Schultz, who is a not a member of the Judiciary Committee but joined her colleagues at the press conference.
Rep. Ted Deutch (D-FL) alleged that the Trump-Bondi interactions were not the usual pay-for-play. “This is pay to look the other way,” he said.
The Democratic members sought to throw Trump’s allegations of Clinton’s State Department pay-for-play back at him. They put the Bondi donation in the context of boastful comments he has made about his money buying influence, which Trump alleges is part of the “broken system” he seeks to fix.
Both Nadler and Chu quoted an interview Trump gave in the Wall Street Journal last year: “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 has made a similar point on the campaign trail. “When I want something I get it,” Trump said at a campaign rally in Iowa in January. “When I call, they kiss my ass. It’s true.”
[See TPM’s timeline of Trump boasting about his political contributions.]
In response to questions from a reporter about the timing of the call for an investigation—54 days before Election Day—leading to possible allegations of partisanship, Nadler pushed back. “People can make partisan accusations, but no one has shown anything wrong with what the Justice Department has done at all,” he said.
Trump is running for president so that he can claim every investigation or prosecution is just a political witch hunt.
Journalists?
Bondi picture–“And his hands are small.”
I wonder if the reporter who was concerned about the timing of the call for an investigation expressed any concern when 60 Republican members of the House of Representatives signed a letter to the FBI, IRS and Federal Trade Commission asking that they open investigations into the Clinton Foundation.