What does Donald Trump think of this story?
“I think it’s the biggest story – one of the big stories of this week of this month, of this year,” continued Trump. “This is terrible and nobody can understand why nothing’s happened. You see a thing like this and, even in terms of judgment, how bad of judgment is it for him or for her to do this? I mean, who would do this?”
Except the story Trump is talking about there isn’t the $25,000 check his foundation illegally cut for Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi. That was how Donald Trump responded to Bill Clinton’s brief meeting with Loretta Lynch. Still, it’s good to see that Trump feels strongly that anyone related to an investigation shouldn’t be dealing with an AG, and that doing so is a “big story.”
Bill Clinton’s less than 30-minute chat with Lynch received a few thousand percent more attention than Trump and Bondi’s boy-that-looks-like-real-pay-for-play situation. But though other Trump University stories continue to languish, the clarity of the Bondi connection is starting to draw some attention.
Buried at the very bottom of this New York Times story focusing on the critical issue of just how close Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump parked their planes, the New York Times actually mentioned Donald Trump’s conveniently-timed contribution to Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi.
Mr. Trump discussed the issue in his talk with reporters aboard his plane. He denied any impropriety on either his part or Ms. Bondi’s concerning the $25,000 donation.
At the time of the donation in 2013, Ms. Bondi was considering whether to investigate Trump University for fraud. In the end, she did not do so.
“I never spoke to her, first of all, she’s a fine person beyond reproach,” he said when asked about the controversy. “I never even spoke to her about it at all. She’s a fine person. Never spoken to her about it. Never.”
Yes, that sounds familiar. However, there’s one somewhat important fact missing from the Times article: Pam Bondi personally solicited the contribution from Donald Trump. “Never” is not what it used to be.
This much is without dispute: The state of Florida was considering entering a suit against Trump University; Florida’s attorney general called Donald Trump directly to solicit a contribution for her re-election fund; Trump sent $25,000, illegally, through his foundation; Bondi did not enter into the suit.
That could be coincidental … but it’s a lot of coincidence. And let’s remember, Trump really thinks that any contact with an attorney general should be a big deal.
Donald Trump on Thursday called Attorney General Loretta Lynch’s private meeting with Bill Clinton on her private plane earlier this week “terrible” and said it is such a big story that “even the liberal media’s making it a big story.”
Yes. Yes it did.
Of course, some of Trump’s supporters weren’t satisfied with just a story. Trump surrogate Carl Paladino had a painfully direct solution to how this should be handled.
The tweet from New York businessman and former gubernatorial candidate Carl Paladino said "Lynch @LorettaLynch let the Grand Jury decide," according to reports and screen grabs on Twitter.