An adviser to Donald Trump’s campaign said Wednesday that its $25,000 donation to Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi was a “clerical mistake.”
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Sarah Huckabee Sanders, an adviser to Trump, argued that his donation had nothing to do with the AG’s office looking into fraud allegations against Trump University, which came under renewed scrutiny Wednesday morning in a front-page article in the New York Times. Bondi’s office eventually dropped the case.
“I would say that the situation with Pam Bondi was a clerical mistake,” Huckabee Sanders told CNN. “They self-reported. They corrected it immediately, and Donald Trump paid that price back, every single penny.”
“I don’t think she ever said she was considering looking at Trump University. I think those are pretty big differences. Very minor when you have one complaint filed in a state where they’ve received thousands upon thousands of complaints every day, versus a national security measure,” she added, referring to Hillary Clinton’s ongoing scandal about her emails when she led the State Department.
Trump campaign manager Kellyanne Conway also downplayed the donation to Bondi, telling ABC that the situation was not a “pay-for-play” while arguing that this was nothing compared to what Clinton has done in the past.
“I would ask her what happened, and in the case of Mr. Trump and Attorney General Bondi, they both said that they’ve never discussed the Trump University lawsuit,” Conway said. “They may have talked about anything. He has a residence in Florida. … He has supported many, many Republicans.”
“We do know that Secretary Clinton used the State Department as a concierge for many foreign donors, that’s been evidence,” Conway continued. “You had more than half of the meetings being taken by people that gave money, and I actually think there’s no comparison between a man who gives consistently to Republican candidates in their re-election … and a woman who was secretary of state had her official staff that we pay for bartering for position and bartering for state dinners and just making contributions that are inappropriate.”
