The press has finally
begun asking Trump about the details of his gift to Pam Bondi, which was
recently flagged as a violation of the law by the IRS, resulting in a fine.
Asked about the cash gift and the later favor delivered by
Bondi, Trump immediately got caught in an inconvenient lie.
“I never spoke to her, first of all. She’s a fine person, beyond reproach. I never even spoke to her about it at all. She’s a fine person.
Never spoken to her about it, never,” Trump said Monday while campaigning in Ohio.
“Many of the attorney generals turned that case down because I’ll win that case in court. Many turned that down. I never spoke to her.”
Marc Reichelderfer — who worked as a consultant on Bondi’s reelection effort — told the Associated Press in June that Bondi spoke with Trump and solicited the donation herself.
Reichelderfer said that Bondi had not been aware of the complaints against Trump University when she asked for the contribution.
Trump
doesn’t have to have spoken with Bondi about his donation to her for it to be
clear evidence of a “pay for play” scandal, but it is telling that as usual his
first, off the cuff remark about Bondi turns out to have been false.
Trump
also made a donation to the attorney general in Texas, who then dropped a probe
of Trump University, and it is unknown how many other government officials got
nice checks from Trump before they made decisions about his business interests.
But
we do know that his first instinct was to tell an easily provable lie.
Author Oliver
Willis was one
of the first political bloggers in the world (since 2000), and was among the
first bloggers to interview President Obama at the White House. I am on Twitter @owillis and write at OliverWillis.com