Rudy Giuliani exposed as key player in Donald Trump’s escalating Trump University bribery scandal
By Bill Palmer | September 7, 2016 | 24
Days after the Donald J. Trump Foundation admitted it violated the law with its $25,000 contribution to Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi’s reelection effort, new attention has been focused on the circumstances under which the Trump money was sent Bondi’s way. It turns out the donation was just the start of a bribery scheme to convince Bondi to drop her investigation into Trump University – and it turns out his political colleague Rudy Giuliani was deeply entwined in the bribery.
The original $25,000 donation was made just days after Bondi had publicly stated she was considering prosecuting Trump University, after which she dropped the matter entirely. But if that seemed like a rather paltry amount of money to sway her, it’s more recently been revealed that it was just the beginning of the money which Trump funneled her way. He set up a fundraiser for her at his Mar-a-lago property, which he rented to her for virtually no cost. The two “special guests” listed on the event invitation: Donald Trump and Rudy Giuliani.
The fundraiser in question appears to have funneled an estimated $150,000 of third-party money into Pam Bondi’s reelection coffers. When the $136,000 discount on the Mar-a-lago property rental is included, along with the Trump Foundation’s $25,000 and check, and Trump’s own $150,000 donation to the Florida Republican Party (a portion of which went back to Bondi), it’s estimated that Donald Trump’s bribery of Bondi came to a total of somewhere between $350,000 and $400,000. So how does Giuliani play into the scandal?
Rudy Giuliani’s willingness to participate in the Pam Bondi fundraiser isn’t illegal in and of itself, unless he knew that the event was part of Donald Trump’s ongoing series of financial bribes to repay Bondi for calling off the Trump University investigation. But at the least, it puts Giuliani on the hot seat. Why did the former New York City Mayor agree to participate in a Florida fundraiser for a comparatively obscure State Attorney General whom he appeared to have no connection with? What did Giuliani know about the Trump University investigation and when did he know it? And did he know that he was participating in a bribery scheme?