Trump Held Fundraiser For Pam Bondi At Mar-a-Lago After She Dropped Investigation
The Republican Party of Florida paid much less for the venue than Trump’s own campaign has paid.
09/06/2016 10:30 pm ET
huffingtonpost.com
WASHINGTON ? In March 2014, Donald Trump opened his 126-room Palm Beach resort, Mar-a-Lago, for a $3,000-per-person fundraiser for Pam Bondi, the Florida attorney general who had recently decided not to investigate Trump University and was facing a tough re-election campaign.Trump, whose personal foundation had given $25,000 to a pro-Bondi group the previous fall, did not write a check to the attorney general that night. But by hosting her at Mar-a-Lago and bringing in some of his own high-profile Florida contacts, he provided her campaign with a nice financial boost.
Trump has claimed that Bondi was merely a candidate he knew well and supported politically. But his fundraising efforts were extensive: In addition to the $25,000 donation, Trump and his daughter Ivanka gave $500 each to Bondi in the fall of 2013. The following year, Ivanka and her father donated a total of $125,000 to the Republican Party of Florida.
All this monetary effort could suggest that Donald Trump was thanking Bondi for not probing his failed seminar program. His efforts to boost her politically came during and after a period when she was being publicly pressed to investigate claims that get-rich-quick seminars bearing his name were defrauding participants.
The use of Mar-a-Lago alone was a donation of some value. Space at the resort is expensive to rent. Trump has charged his own presidential campaign roughly $140,000 an event for use of the resort.
In contrast, the Republican Party of Florida paid only $4,855.65 for the Bondi fundraiser, cutting a check on March 25, 2014. It was a “small event on the lawn ... featuring snacks and refreshments, attended by about 50 people,” a Bondi campaign staffer told The Huffington Post.
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