REPORT: Trump Expected to Name Pam Bondi to White House Post
Trump and Bondi Are Close Long-Time Friends
Pam Bondi is about to get a White House job, according to Bloomberg Politics White House reporter Jennifer Jacobs.
NEW: Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi will be named to a post in the Trump White House, sources tell me. Trump aides finalizing her role.
— Jennifer Jacobs (@JenniferJJacobs) January 5, 2017
Bondi is the Florida Attorney General who chose to not pursue an investigation into Trump University despite a plethora of complaints, after personally asking Donald Trump for and receiving a $25,000 donation for her re-election campaign. The donation actually violated strict IRS rules, because Trump paid it through his “charitable” foundation. He was forced to pay a penalty after an investigation.Â
Trump not only gave Bondi an improper donation, but hosted a campaign fundraiser at his Mar-a-Lago estate – after Bondi announced there would not be an investigation into Trump University. The fundraiser charged the 500 attendees a minimum of $3000 each. Trump, and his daughter Ivanka, later donated $125,000 to the Florida GOP, which was the biggest source of Bondi’s re-election funds.
Bondi has denied being the one to make the decision in her office to not investigate Trump’s “university.” Other state attorneys general, including New York’s Eric Schneiderman, have investigated Trump University. After winning the White House, President-elect Trump settled with the State of New York, paying a $25 million fine. Schneiderman in a statement said he sued Trump For “swindling thousands of innocent Americans out of ​millions of dollars through a scheme known as Trump University.”
Asked about FL AG Pam Bondi, Trump’s Sean Spicer calls her “a very trusted confidante” of Trump’s, and “a very valued opinion” in his world.
— Jennifer Jacobs (@JenniferJJacobs) January 5, 2017
Bondi first gained national attention for relentlessly fighting against not Trump University, but against cases filed by same-sex couples attempting to end Florida’s ban on marriage. She even petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court to intervene. As attorney general, Bondi falsely claimed same-sex marriage would “impose significant public harm,†and suggested that same-sex couples don’t create stable or enduring homes.
“Florida’s marriage laws,†Bondi wrote in a 2014 federal court filing (PDF), “have a close, direct, and rational relationship to society’s legitimate interest in increasing the likelihood that children will be born to and raised by the mothers and fathers who produced them in stable and enduring family units.â€
Bondi, who was 48 at the time, had already been divorced twice.
Bondi’s efforts to derail the marriage cases, which clearly the State of Florida was going to lose, cost Sunshine State taxpayers at minimum a half-million dollars.
With the exception of one Cabinet nominee, every cabinet or top administration pick has gone to a candidate who opposes LGBT civil rights, including the right of same-sex couples to marry.Â
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