Hillary Clinton counterattacks, hits Donald Trump foundation
The Hillary Clinton forces have rolled out their line of counterattack against Donald Trump’s savaging of her family’s sprawling foundation as a “criminal enterprise.”
Clinton & Co. are putting his Donald J. Trump Foundation in a scandalous light of its own, given multiple fraud investigations into his defunct Trump University.
Earlier this year it was reported that Trump’s charity entity violated tax laws by donating $25,000 to a campaign group called And Justice For All. Trump paid the IRS a $2,500 fine, given a prohibition on charity funds for political entities.
This campaign group’s purpose is to support Pam Bondi, the Florida attorney general. The donation was made in 2013. It arrived, according to published accounts, just days after her office said it was considering a probe into Trump University.
On Monday, during a rare audience with reporters traveling with his campaign, Trump denied any link between the red-flagged donation and the fact that Bondi decided against launching a probe.
“I never even spoke to her about it at all,” the Republican candidate said. “She’s a fine person. Never spoke to her about it. Never.” She’s done an “amazing job” in her public post, he said. Bondi endorsed him in March.
But Trump in the past has generally boasted that his campaign donations bring him results.
During a Republican debate in August 2015 he said of those to whom he donated: “When you give, they do whatever the hell you want them to do.
“You’d better believe it,” Trump added for emphasis.
So in her own unusual campaign-plane encounter with the traveling press, Clinton went on the offensive, feeding pay-to-play suspicions against her opponent.
“I am quite taken aback by [Trump’s] foundation making a political contribution to the Florida AG, who was just about to investigate Trump University and then ending the investigation,” she said. “There’s so many things that are questionable about that.” She cited the IRS fine.
Playing defense, Hope Hicks, the Trump spokeswoman, confirmed the fine was paid, but said, “This was a minor issue that was brought to the attention of the foundation and addressed immediately.”
Bill Clinton added to the verbal counteroffensive by defending his foundation’s record against newly revealed emails showing interesting interactions between its donors and the State Department under Secretary Hillary Clinton.
“All we’ve done is save lives and create jobs all across America and all across the world,” he said.
If you had any doubt that this was the Clinton camp talking point du jour, it became even more obvious Tuesday with a Twitter message from campaign press secretary Brian Fallon.
His tweet read: “Hillary Clinton’s coughing has received more stories than Trump’s illegal donation to Pam Bondi.
“Sigh.”
Dan Janison is a member of the Newsday editorial board.
