Terrible tales from the Trump files

Did you hear the one about Donald Trump giving the Texas attorney general a big campaign contribution after the AG dropped a lawsuit against his Trump University? Or the Florida attorney general soliciting and receiving a $25,000 check from Trump before dropping a similar suit against Trump U in her Sunshine State? 

These were cases involving his invented, unaccredited “university” that were settled the old-fashioned way, with money. But it’s more awkward to use money to influence a judge than a politician, so in the celebrated case of the Mexican judge from East Chicago, Indiana, Trump had to substitute racism for cash. 

There was nothing illegal about Trump’s financial transactions in the Trump U litigations. It’s virtually impossible to prove a quid pro quo, Latin for “you scratch me and I’ll scratch you,” in cases involving political contributions for political favors. No donor has ever expected a favor and no recipient has expected to provide one. There are, however, moral and ethical questions, which once counted for something in the political process of the United States but appear to be inoperative in the age of Trump.

After I heard Trump tell an interviewer that several attorneys general had dropped suits against his fine educational institution without being asked to name them, I looked for the several. It turns out that it depends on what your definition of “several” is. 

Two attorneys general have indeed dropped suits that were being initiated by their offices. Coincidentally, they are the exact same attorneys general who were beneficiaries of Trump largesse, Gregory Abbott of Texas and Pam Bondi of Florida. 

Suits in two other states, New York and California are proceeding. 

No one in politics has explained how cash contributions and favors are exchanged better than Trump. He did it in one of the first Republican debates last summer:

“When they call, I give. And you know what? When I need something from them, two years later, three years later, I call them and they are there for me.”

It didn’t work quite that way in Texas and Florida, but it came close. AG Bondi of Florida called for a contribution to her private foundation while her office was investigating Trump U. “And you know what?” When she called, Trump gave and the suit was dropped. The Orlando Sentinel and others are calling for an investigation of the coincidence, including the fact that her donation was the only one made by Trump to a state attorney general that year. Bondi, better known for postponing an execution because it interfered with a fundraiser she was holding, has given the money back.

In Texas, the suit was proceeding nicely, with the AG’s office building an impressive case on behalf of former Trump U students, when it was abruptly dropped on orders from the top. Then, two years later, when AG Abbott was running for governor, his campaign was enriched by $35,000 from Donald Trump of New York, N.Y., undoubtedly out of admiration for Abbott’s outstanding work as attorney general of the distant state.

Left hanging were the 306 former “students” at Trump U who had spent between $1,495 and $35,000 for various seminars aimed at showing them how to get rich in the foreclosure market.

John Owens, who headed up the AG’s Consumer Protection Division and retired after 20 years in the job, told various Texas newspapers his department “routinely got approval to sue people. We routinely went after bogus schools that offered false diplomas” and said the AG’s decision to drop the Trump University suit “stunk.”

He told The Dallas Morning News the decision was political. “Had he been just some other scam artist, we would have sued him.” Owens has since been silenced by the current attorney general, and it is now claimed the suit was dropped after Trump U’s lawyers agreed to stop doing business in Texas, as they were in the process of doing nationwide. Therefore, said a spokesman for now Governor Abbott, future Texas consumers had been protected — except for the 306 who said they were swindled. By acknowledging the state protected Texans by allowing the suit to be dropped in exchange for Trump University doing no more business in Texas, isn’t it stating there were grounds for the suit by the former “students?”

The Trump U saga is just one of dozens of sidebars in the long list of high crimes and misdemeanors that all but disqualify this character from being president. We know relatively little about his business life, thanks to his incredible refusal to release tax returns. We do know he is a bigoted bully and the most unsuitable potential president this nation has ever produced.

Simsbury resident Dick Ahles is a retired journalist. Email him at dahles@hotmail.com.