WASHINGTON — House Democrats called Tuesday for a federal criminal investigation into an improper $25,000 donation Donald Trump’s charity made to a political group supporting Florida’s attorney general after her office said it was weighing legal action against Trump University.
The call for a federal investigation came the same day that New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman disclosed that his office has been investigating Trump’s charity to determine whether it has abided by state laws governing nonprofits.
The Associated Press first reported in June that Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi personally solicited the money during a 2013 phone call that came after her office received complaints from former students claiming they were scammed by Trump’s namesake get-rich-quick real estate seminars.
The Donald J. Trump Foundation check arrived just days after Bondi’s office told a newspaper that it was reviewing a lawsuit against Trump University filed by Schneiderman. Bondi’s office never sued Trump, though she denies his donation played any role in that decision.
The Republican presidential nominee later paid a $2,500 fine over the check from his foundation because it violated federal law barring charities from making political contributions.
In a letter that all 16 Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee sent Tuesday to U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch, ranking member John Conyers of Michigan said federal investigators should determine whether the 2013 donation and Bondi’s decision not to join the New York lawsuit violated federal bribery or tax laws.
“This fact pattern indicates that these payments may have influenced Mrs. Bondi’s official decision not to participate in litigation against Mr. Trump,” Conyers wrote, specifically citing the reporting of AP and others.
Justice Department spokesman Peter Carr confirmed receipt of the letter Tuesday, but declined to comment on it.
Bondi has endorsed Trump’s presidential bid and has appeared with him this year on the campaign trail.
She has said the timing of Trump’s donation was coincidental and that she wasn’t personally aware of the consumer complaints her office had received about Trump University and the Trump Institute, a separate Florida business that licensed the Trump name and curriculum.
Neither company was still offering seminars by the time Bondi took office in 2011, though dissatisfied former customers were still seeking promised refunds.
Trump’s spokeswoman Hope Hicks confirmed to AP that Trump and Bondi spoke before his charity donated to a group supporting her candidacy, but says they didn’t discuss any potential lawsuit. Neither Trump’s or Bondi’s spokespeople has responded to questions about what the two did discuss, or provided the exact date of the call.
Schneiderman, a Democrat who has endorsed Hillary Clinton, said Tuesday his office has been looking into the Trump Foundation to determine whether it has complied with New York laws governing nonprofits.
“We have been concerned that the Trump Foundation may have engaged in some impropriety from that point of view,” Schneiderman told CNN’s Jake Tapper.
“And we’ve inquired into it, and we’ve had correspondence with them. I didn’t make a big deal out of it or hold a press conference, but we have been looking into the Trump Foundation to make sure it’s complying with the laws that govern charities in New York,” Schneiderman said.
