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Ruth: Trump's investment in Pam Bondi pays off

 
Donald Trump is greeted by Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi in Palm Beach in March. Bondi solicited a $25,000 contribution from Trump in 2013 while her office was reviewing complaints against Trump University.
Donald Trump is greeted by Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi in Palm Beach in March. Bondi solicited a $25,000 contribution from Trump in 2013 while her office was reviewing complaints against Trump University.
Published June 10, 2016

Attorney General Pam Bondi has a decision to make. Does she truly want to be Florida's chief legal officer? Or does she want her office to be known as the Kmart of state attorneys general, with blue-light specials flickering great deals on selling justice to the highest bidder?

She Who Must Be Lovingly Portrayed found herself "devastated" by an Associated Press report that Bondi personally solicited a political contribution from Donald Trump about the same time as her office considered joining a New York state investigation of alleged fraud at Trump University and its affiliates.

And poof! Just like that Trump University, at least in Florida, was off the hook amid allegations the school for suckers was scamming "students" out of thousands of dollars for dubious real estate investment courses.

It turned out that the check arrived from a Trump family charitable foundation, which is barred by federal tax law from making political contributions. Bondi's political committee deposited the check, then attempted to return it and wound up with a personal check from Trump after the foundation voided the original check. Either way, she got the cash.

The attorney general went into full Little Bo Peep mode, claiming the contribution and the appearance of a conflict made her an unfortunate victim of circumstance. Bondi said it was impossible for her office to run away from an investigation into Trump University when there was never an investigation in Florida to begin with. That suggests the attorney general is afflicted with a virulent case of political attention deficit disorder.

After all, in September 2013, after her office had received dozens of complaints from Floridians claiming they had been grifted by Trump University, Bondi publicly proclaimed her office would be joining with the New York attorney general's office to pursue an investigation into the sham institution of higher shucking and jiving.

Four days later the check arrived. And as if by magic Florida did not join the New York investigation or launch its own.

Now caught with her hand in Trump's caviar jar, various apologists for Bondi have been arguing there was no need for an investigation on her part because New York already was looking into Trump University. But Bondi has never been shy about sticking her nose into other states' legal actions. For example, in 2014 she needlessly meddled in an effort to prevent the implementation of a federal program to clean up pollution in Chesapeake Bay — 800 miles away from Florida — even though the six surrounding states along the Chesapeake's shores all agreed to the plan.

Trump and his ivy league of hucksters aren't the only ones who have seen an investigation (or not) disappear into Bondi's dead zone of indifference. Earlier this year, Bondi was more on the run than The Fugitive in avoiding officials from the Florida Commission on Ethics who had questions about allegations she had accepted all manner of questionable hospitality from the former prominent Washington law firm, Dickstein Shapiro, on numerous all-expense-paid junkets to swanky resorts to attend Republican Attorneys General Association soirees.

It turned out to be a great investment for Dickstein Shaprio since clients represented by the firm being investigated by Bondi saw their cases go buh-bye, too.

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Yet Bondi could not spare the time it takes over a cup of coffee to meet with the ethics commission to explain the tawdry appearance of a quid pro quo. Not a minute. Not a second. Nothing. For 16 months. But she had time to schmooze Trump for a cool $25K.

In the end, the hapless victims of Trump University got stiffed — twice. The first time it was by an avaricious opportunist who preyed on their naivete about believing they could become rich by attending a make-believe for-profit "university" selling make-believe dreams.

And when they figured out they were being played for chumps and turned to the state's top legal officer to open a fraud investigation, it turned out Bondi was a pal and paid-for political ally of the very guy who had just fleeced them.

You'd have a better chance at finding fairness in Deadwood.

Of course, it is always possible all these legal air kisses tossed Trump's way were done without Bondi's knowledge. This is an attorney general who is not known for burning the midnight oil in Tallahassee reading the legal opinions of St. Thomas More.

So busy. Busy flying off to bogus conventions. Busy suing the Obama administration. Busy campaigning for the headmaster of Trump University.

Who has time for justice?