Trump U Scam Morphing Into Campaign Bribery

It's looking more and more like the Trump University fraud is morphing into a campaign finance scandal as well. The University fraud was a pretty simple scam - put a Trump name on it and then hire high-pressure salespeople to mislead customers, prey on their emotions, and force them to sign up for the most expensive "seminars" and "mentorship programs" possible.  As bad as that was, what is potentially more explosive is the revelation that several states' Attorneys General began to investigate the fraud at Trump University but, after backing off pursuing those investigations, received significant campaign donations from Trump-related entities. Specifically, Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi received a $25,000 from the Donald J. Trump Foundation shortly after reports surfaced that she was investigating Trump University. Shortly thereafter, Bondi announced that there was insufficient grounds to proceed with the case. And in Texas, Attorney General opened a civil investigation but dropped the case when the University agreed to suspend all its operations in Texas. Again, shortly thereafter, Abbott received a $35,000 donation to his gubernatorial campaign. And today the former deputy director of Abbott's Consumer Protection Division plainly states that the decision was purely political, saying, "[t]he decision not to sue him was political. Had [Trump] not been involved in politics to the extent he was at the time, we would have gotten approval. Had he been just some other scam artist, we would have sued him.”

Of course, all sides will deny there was any quid-pro-quo involved, although Trump has been more honest than most (did I really just write that!) about his belief in the purely transactional nature of his campaign contributions. But if all it takes is a few tens of thousands of dollars to buy off an Attorney General, that is a pretty cheap price to pay for the cost of doing illegal business.  If only the rest of us could buy that kind of justice.  But, with our present campaign finance laws, that is what American justice looks like today.