Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi (R) asked presumptive GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump for a political donation within days of her office considering whether to join a multi-state lawsuit against now-defunct Trump University.
{mosads}According to a new disclosure provided to The Associated Press, a $25,000 political donation from the Donald J. Trump Foundation to “And Justice For All,” a political committee that supported Bondi’s reelection, was received four days after the office announced it might join the lawsuit.
After the check came in, Bondi’s office cited insufficient grounds to proceed in the case and decided not to sue Trump.
Bondi, who endorsed Trump in March, declined to comment to the AP. She referred questions to Marc Reichelderfer, a political consultant who worked for Bondi’s reelection campaign, who told the publication that the attorney general talked to Trump “several weeks” prior to her office announcing it would look into joining the lawsuit.
He said Bondi didn’t know of complaints submitted to her office about the university’s classes when she solicited the contributions.
“The process took at least several weeks, from the time they spoke to the time they received the contribution,” Reichelderfer told the AP.
The school has recently received intense scrutiny after a judge released Trump University documents that reveal details of how the school was run, such as instructors encouraging prospective students to max out credit cards in order to pay as much as $35,000 for real estate classes.