Did Trump Pay Off Cuomo To Ignore University Fraud?

Donald Trump has been all too happy to brag about his connections to high level political names. He boasts about the influence he has over them and writes off his contributions (mainly to liberal Democrats) as just the cost of doing business.

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The loyal Trumpkins who cling to his every word, as if it were a holy edict, don’t really care to know details and will justify every questionable action.

Ignorance really is bliss.

The supposed appeal of Trump to his glassy-eyed masses is that he can’t be bought. They apparently give little thought to the fact that if he’s the one doing the buying, he’s still just as crooked, if not more so, than those entrenched cronies they so despise.

In The Federalist today, the question was raised regarding Trump’s fraudulent Trump University. After opening its doors in 2005, the state of New York ordered them to drop the title, “University,” due to the fact that this was not an accredited school.

The disgraced Eliot Spitzer was the State Attorney General at that time. Trump donated heavily to Spitzer, and maybe not-so-coincidentally, no actions were taken against the bogus school for falsely using the title of “University.”

The relationship between Trump and incoming New York State Attorney General, Andrew Cuomo is detailed in the story from The Federalist:

Trump gave Cuomo $10,000 for his 2006 attorney general campaign—a large sum, even for Trump. Sure enough, Trump University continued to go unchallenged by Cuomo’s office. He took no action although complaints were lining up against Trump’s educational corporation. Even when, in 2010, the attorneys general of Texas and Florida opened investigations against Trump University, New York state was oddly quiet about it. Was it too quiet?

Consider Trump’s largest donation to Cuomo: a whopping $25,000 came in June 2009, as Cuomo was preparing to run for governor. Only months later, the other attorneys general would begin their actions against Trump University. Did Cuomo fail to follow suit because, as Trump claims, the cash meant he would do whatever Trump wanted? Was he afraid to turn off the spigot? Trump also provided him another $5,000 just four months later.

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In 2011, Cuomo’s successor looked to be Eric Schneiderman. Trump gave a $12,500 donation to the campaign. By 2013, new AG Schneiderman’s office had investigated Trump University and filed a lawsuit, slamming the school for fraud.

In response, Trump did what he does – namely, took to Twitter to whine like a 13-year old girl. Afterwards, he donated $20,000 to Schneiderman’s opponent.

In March 2015, Trump filed a complaint against Schneiderman with the Joint Commission on Public Ethics. His complaint consisted of claims that Schneiderman was attempting to extort contributions from his family, in return for allowing the case against Trump University to cool down. In August 2015, the Commission found in Schneiderman’s favor and dropped the case.

While no one, at this point, can say for certain that Trump’s contributions were the reason Cuomo seemed apathetic to the fraudulent existence of Trump University, it wouldn’t be out of the realm of possibility to consider.

A question we all should be asking ourselves, but the Trumpsters, for certain: If a man is shown to be a crooked and deceitful businessman, what impetus is there for us to believe he’d suddenly become honest as a politician?

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