New York AG opens inquiry into Trump Foundation

“When they call, I give”, Donald Trump proudly said at a GOP primary debate.

“And the answer is very simply: The New York State Attorney General’s Office has never asked any non-profit to disclose contributions from foreign governments”.

Attorney General Eric Schneiderman revealed the inquiry on Tuesday, telling CNN that “we have been concerned that the Trump Foundation may have engaged in some impropriety”, although he did not go into detail.

Trump donated $25,000 to Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi’s campaign as her office was considering whether to open an investigation into Trump University.

In a letter Tuesday to Attorney General Loretta E. Lynch, all the Democratic lawmakers on the House Judiciary Committee requested that she investigate the Bondi donation.

In a statement, Jason Miller, a Trump spokesman said that the entire issue was nothing more than another left-wing hit job meant to shift the attention of people from disastrous week of Hillary Clinton.

The Trump campaign immediately blasted Schneiderman as a ‘hack’.

Nonetheless, Democrats have leveled the accusation that Trump has paid off government officials for preferential treatment and made the Bondi donation a pivotal part of that line of attack.

Schneiderman said his office began communicating with the Trump Foundation in June.

Schneiderman is also leading a case against Trump and his associates over Trump University, the Republican presidential nominee’s now-shuttered seminar program.

Mr Schneiderman and Mr Trump have a long history of exchanging harsh words, which may undercut his investigation.

Trump’s charity foundation has also helped him to shore up advantageous political relationships. Trump previously used ,000 of campaign donations to buy his book Crippled America: How to Make America Great Again as gifts for Republican National Convention.

The Trump Foundation did not record the donation to Bondi’s group – called And Justice For All – in their reporters, instead listing a donation in the same amount to a Kansas-based charity with a similar name.

The New York State attorney general’s office has opened a broad inquiry into the Trump Foundation, the office confirms. Both she and Trump have denied there was any quid pro quo in connection with the donation and the decision not to launch the investigation.