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Trump donation draws attention

AG declined to join lawsuit

WASHINGTON — Donald Trump spoke to Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi before his charity cut a 2013 check to support her re-election effort, but his campaign said Tuesday the two never discussed whether her office would join a lawsuit against Trump University.

Trump spokesman Hope Hicks clarified details of the conversation one day after the Republican presidential candidate said he never spoke to Bondi about the issue, without providing specifics. Bondi, also a Republican, has endorsed Trump’s White House bid.

“I never spoke to her, first of all, she’s a fine person beyond reproach,” Trump said Monday. “Never spoken to her about it. Never. Many of the AGs turned that case down because I’ll win that case in court, many turned that down.”

Bondi’s spokesman said in June that she personally solicited the $25,000 donation from Trump during a 2013 phone call. The Donald J. Trump Foundation check arrived just days after Bondi’s office told a newspaper it was deliberating whether to join a proposed multi-state lawsuit against Trump University and Trump Institute, businesses that offered real-estate seminars that scores of former students allege were get-rich-quick scams.

Florida didn’t join the lawsuit filed by New York’s attorney general. Trump has said in the past that he expects and receives favors from politicians to whom he gives money.

Bondi has said the timing of Trump’s $25,000 donation was coincidental and said she wasn’t personally aware of the numerous consumer complaints her office had received about the Trump-owned Trump University and the Trump Institute.

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