Citizens for Ethics Profile picture
Nov 22, 2024 16 tweets 4 min read Read on X
Let’s talk about Donald Trump and his new Attorney General pick Pam Bondi, because boy do we have a story to tell
From February 2008-May 2011, the Florida Attorney General’s office received at least 22 complaints regarding Trump University, the Trump Institute, and related entities
Jump ahead to 2013, the New York Attorney General filed a lawsuit against Trump University  for “engaging in persistent fraudulent, illegal and deceptive conduct,” and then-Florida Attorney General Bondi’s office told multiple publications they were reviewing the suit and considering joining
A couple days later, the Donald J. Trump Foundation makes a $25,000 contribution to And Justice for All, a political group backing Bondi. The donation, illegal for a 501(c)(3) private foundation to give, was personally solicited by Bondi from Trump.
Despite previously acknowledging the 22 complaints to reporters, internal emails show that between October 17-18, 2013, Bondi’s employees weeded out any complaint about Trump Institute and related entities to claim there was only one complaint against Trump University.
In its 2013 taxes, the Trump Foundation claims it made no donations to political entities and replaces And Justice for All with a different, similarly named group in Kansas to which they would legally be allowed to donate.
We filed a complaint. Because this is clearly illegal. citizensforethics.org/news/press-rel…
Trump representatives admitted to the illegal donation, blaming an increasing series of clerical errors. citizensforethics.org/reports-invest…
We then filed complaints against Bondi with the Inspector General for Florida’s Office of the Attorney General and the state’s Commission on Ethics for potentially violating the law citizensforethics.org/legal-action/l…
We then filed a series of IRS complaints against Trump and the Trump Foundation citizensforethics.org/news/press-rel…
Following CREW’s discovery that the Trump Foundation did not file an updated 990 tax form, the Washington Post discovered a $2,500 IRS penalty paid by the Foundation for the illegal donation, kicking off one of the biggest stories of the year.
washingtonpost.com/news/post-poli…
We then filed criminal bribery complaints against Trump and Bondi with the Department of Justice and called for a criminal investigation into whether the Trump Foundation broke federal criminal law by making numerous false reports to the IRS on its tax forms.
citizensforethics.org/news/press-rel…
Following CREW’s investigation, Trump announces he’s closing the Trump Foundation citizensforethics.org/news/press-rel…
And now Bondi gets her reward: the top law enforcement job in the country. The Senate Judiciary Committee needs to thoroughly investigate the Trump-Bondi scandal.
And if you want all the Trump-Bondi lore in one place: citizensforethics.org/reports-invest…

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More from @CREWcrew

May 6
On Monday, we released a piece about Trump's new Billionaires Club game, calling attention to the irony of the branding.

On Tuesday, the game was supposed to launch.

Today, the app store page for the game is gone. Why did they pull the plug? 🧵 Image
Image
The game appears to be another vehicle to gin up trading for $TRUMP, Trump’s memecoin, of which he takes a cut of every trade.

He could also profit from a licensing agreement with Freedom45Games to use the Trump name for the game. citizensforethics.org/reports-invest…
It’s not like Trump needed another vehicle for presidential profiteering.

He’s made at least $4 billion during his first year back in office through his merch store, foreign real estate deals, media company and—most of all—crypto. newyorker.com/news/a-reporte…
Read 15 tweets
Apr 2
This is a big deal and it’s flying below the radar—Trump’s DOJ just gave him a huge gift in the form of a legal opinion declaring that the Presidential Records Act is unconstitutional.

Let’s be clear: that’s nonsense. We’ll break it down 🧵 Image
Congress passed the Presidential Records Act of 1978 after Watergate to establish that presidential records are the property of the American people, not individual presidents.

In nearly 50 years, no president has claimed that it is unconstitutional.
Trump has a long history with the PRA, including multiple warnings from the National Archives that he was violating the law during his first term.

And his handling of classified documents was so egregious that he was charged with several crimes. citizensforethics.org/news/analysis/…
Read 6 tweets
Mar 24
A month ago, we noted that Jared Kushner’s appointment as special envoy for peace meant he would need to file a financial disclosure so that he could resolve potential conflicts of interest and called on him to proactively divest from Affinity Partners.

He hasn’t.🧵
We also sent a letter to the White House counsel demanding that Kushner comply with the law by filing the mandated disclosures within 30 days of his appointment—which passed on March 21st. citizensforethics.org/legal-action/l…
Since then, Kushner appears not to have done so.

Unless he got an extension from the White House ethics official, that would put him in violation of the Ethics in Government Act. citizensforethics.org/news/press-rel…
Read 7 tweets
Mar 17
The Senate is set to vote on the SAVE America Act this week—and President Trump is ramping up the pressure by claiming he won’t sign any bills until it passes.

We can’t let it pass. Here’s why. 🧵
The SAVE America Act would require all US citizens to provide proof of citizenship documents—primarily either a passport or an original birth certificate—when registering to vote and updating their voter registration.
The problem? Twenty-one million American citizens don’t have these documents readily available, and obtaining them can be expensive and take weeks or even months.
Read 11 tweets
Feb 24
NEW: President Trump’s first year of his second term was reportedly “the most lucrative year of his life.”

His profiteering during his first term already made him the most corrupt president in history—but last year it got even worse. 🧵
citizensforethics.org/reports-invest…
CREW has been tracking Trump’s conflicts of interest tied to his real estate empire, including:

-Visits to Trump properties
-Events held there
-Promotion of his business interests

What we found shows a presidency increasingly oriented around private profit.
In year one, Trump made 198 visits to his own properties, including 116 to his golf courses.

That’s a 21% increase from his first term!
Read 19 tweets
Feb 2
GOOD NEWS: California and Oregon federal district courts dismissed the DOJ’s lawsuit against those states for their refusal to turn over state voter data—calling the Trump administration’s efforts “unprecedented and illegal.” 🧵
Since May 2025, the DOJ has sent demands to all 50 states for statewide voter registration data. If fulfilled, these demands could upend our constitutional framework, as we wrote in amicus briefs: .citizensforethics.org/legal-action/a…
Why? Because the states—not the federal government—are responsible for administering elections.

The National Voter Registration Act and Help America Vote Act both confirm states’ authority over managing voter rolls and elections generally.
Read 10 tweets

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