Florida’s attorney general sought a political donation from Donald Trump while her office weighed whether to join a multi-state lawsuit pursuing fraud charges against Trump University.
The Donald J. Trump Foundation contributed $25,000 to a political committee backing Attorney General Pam Bondi’s reelection bid in September 2013, just four days after her office announced it might join the multi-state lawsuit, the Associated Press reported Monday.
After the political group "And Justice for All" received the check, Bondi’s office decided against suing Trump, citing insufficient grounds to proceed in the case.
Bondi directed questions from the AP to Marc Reichelderfer, a political consultant who worked for her reelection campaign.
Reichelderfer said that Bondi consulted with Trump "several weeks" prior to her office’s announcement that it was considering joining a New York state investigation into Trump University.
He said Bondi didn’t know about the "dozens of consumer complaints" her office had received regarding the university’s classes when she had solicited the donation.
An AP analysis found that more than 20 people sought help from Florida’s attorney general office to secure refunds from Trump University, contradicting claims from Bondi’s office that she had received just one consumer complaint about the university before deciding against joining the New York probe.
Bondi endorsed Trump in March.
Trump University is entangled in three separate lawsuits charging that the real-estate institution was a scam.