Donald Trump is facing renewed pay-to-play accusations from critics who charge that the Republican nominee paid off Florida’s Attorney General Pam Bondi to drop a fraud investigation into the defunct Trump University.
The issue resurfaced last week after Trump paid a $2,500 fine to the Internal Revenue Service over an improper $25,000 contribution from his foundation to a political committee backing Bondi’s reelection bid in September 2013.
Soon after receiving the check, Bondi’s office decided against joining an emerging multi-state lawsuit against Trump’s real estate institution, citing insufficient grounds to proceed in the case.
Trump and Bondi maintain the payment was unrelated to the lawsuit, but critics have redirected focus to the incident as the GOP nominee’s campaign continues to accuse Hillary Clinton of engaging in pay-to-play tactics through the Clinton Foundation while serving as secretary of state.
Campaign manager Kellyanne Conway downplayed the connection Wednesday on ABC’s Good Morning America, saying that Trump "has supported many, many Republican candidates," according to Politico.
"But we do know Mrs. Clinton, Secretary Clinton used the State Department as a concierge for many foreign donors," Conway said. "And I think there’s actually no comparison between man who gives consistently to Republican candidates in their reelection ... and a woman who as secretary of state has had her official staff that we pay for bartering for position and bartering for state dinners and, you know, just making contributions that are inappropriate."
Conway later in the day told Bloomberg it was "ridiculous" to suggest Trump was involved in pay-to-play. When asked whether people should "accept the timing" of the donation as a "coincidence," Conway responded, "Yes, they say they never discussed it."
"I think there is absolutely no equivalence between that and Hillary Clinton using the State Department as a concierge for foreign donors to move hundreds of millions," she said.
Bill Clinton on Wednesday told a crowd during a rally in Orlando that while Trump attacks the Clinton Foundation, "he uses his foundation’s money to pay off your attorney general."
The Trump campaign, meanwhile, did not back off from hurling pay-to-play attacks at Clinton.
Trump’s running mate Mike Pence told Fox News on Wednesday that Clinton should "come clean" with all emails related to overlapping interests between the State Department and Clinton Foundation.
"This pay-to-play politics has begun to come to light for the American people," he said.