The REAL story on Pam Bondi, Trump University, and Trump's $25,000 payment to Bondi:
1/ In August 2013, I was at the NY AG, and Bondi was Florida AG.
On August 24, 2013, I filed the NY AG's prosecution of Trump University and Donald Trump, for $42 million in fraud. 🧵
2/ Our case made national headlines for several days after.
Unbeknownst to us, on August 28, 2013, Trump's assistant, Rhona Graff, had an email exchange with Bondi's campaign finance director, to obtain the payment info to send a $25,000 donation to one of Bondi's PACs.
3/ During that same time, our office was in touch with the Florida AG's office; they were interested in joining our case.
State AG offices routinely join each other's cases when there's a large multistate fraud.
Florida had one of the largest numbers of Trump U victims.
4/ At the request of my bureau chief, I collected all the key documents from our case so they could be emailed to the Florida AG's office.
This was just after Labor Day 2013.
At the NY AG's office at that point, we were excited about the prospect of Florida joining our case.
5/ But then the Florida AG's office ghosted us, and we never heard from them again.
At the time, we didn't know what had happened.
6/ Meanwhile, on September 13, 2013, unbeknownst to us, Donald Trump sent one of Bondi's PACs a $25,000 check, misspelling Bondi's name and writing a note: "Dear Pam, You are the greatest!"
Florida never joined our case or take any other action against Trump University.
7/ Additional fun fact: Trump's donation came from the Trump Foundation, the 501(c)(3) tax-exempt charity Trump and his family then ran.
That was illegal. And my colleagues at the NY AG's office then prosecuted the Trump Foundation for this and other offenses and shut it down.
8/ For the FULL story of Trump's payments to prosecutors over the years
Check out Chapter 2 from Taking Down Trump: takingdowntrump.com
And for continuing legal and political coverage of the fight against Trump and Trumpism: tristansnell.com
9/ For my full break down of Pam Bondi, check out my newest Substack article:
tristansnell.com/p/the-real-sto…
Share this Scrolly Tale with your friends.
A Scrolly Tale is a new way to read Twitter threads with a more visually immersive experience.
Discover more beautiful Scrolly Tales like this.