Controversy over Florida’s Pam Bondi

With impeachment hearings against President Donald Trump on the way, controversy has begun surrounding Trump’s relationship with Pam Bondi: one of the two advisers recruited by the White House to defend the President in the congressional impeachment inquiry over his relations and alleged crimes having to do with with Ukraine.

The two have history, which dates from before Trump announced his candidacy for President. In mid-September 2013, Bondi’s office announced that it was looking into complaints against Trump University and its partners. Shortly after, Justice For All, a political group supporting Bondi’s re-election as Attorney General of Florida, received a $25,000 donation from the nonprofit Donald J. Trump Foundation.

Only weeks after, Bondi revoked and her decision to pursue legal action against Trump, citing insufficient grounds.

From then on, Bondi’s relationship with Trump began to grow further, as she openly began endorsing him for president at a campaign rally in Tampa. This was sometime in March 2016.

Soon after, a string of IRS and multiple other complaints against the Trump Foundation began taking form, the first of these being made by the Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) group. The Trump Foundation told the IRS it “made no political contributions” to the Bondi campaign, and instead of listing the Bondi group, they reported a Kansas organization with a similar name to which they could legally donate.

In July, CREW filed another complaint, citing that Bondi violated the law by not investigating or taking legal action regarding the past complaints against Trump University and its partners after the $25,000 donation was made. More complaints of bribery and deceit were filed against Trump and Bondi with the Department of Justice, and eventually, Trump announced the shutdown of the Trump Foundation by the end of December 2016. The shutdown only took full effect two years later.

And now, almost a year later, a New York State judge ordered Trump to pay a $2 million fine for misuse of the Trump Foundation: using the proceeds from an event advertised as benefiting veterans to benefit his presidential campaign instead. Not only is this questionable simply by the nature of the act, it is also rather disrespectful to American veterans.

Darlon Riviere - Staff Writer