Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump has throughout his career given campaign contributions to state attorneys general while they weighed decisions affecting his business, a review of his political donations shows.
The issue recently surfaced during a controversy over his 2013 campaign contribution to Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi, who was reviewing a fraud case against Trump University.
Records show Mr. Trump, his family and associates donated in particular to attorneys general in New York, from Robert Abrams in the 1980s through incumbent Eric Schneiderman. The money was given often when Mr. Trump’s companies had decisions pending in these offices. Attorneys general are law-enforcement officials with significant oversight of business practices in their states.
Mr. Trump in his presidential bid has portrayed himself as an outsider independent from special interests and what he called the “rigged” political system. The candidate and his aides have said making legal contributions doesn’t put him in the same category as what they describe as career politicians, such as Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton, his opponent for the White House.
“He has always said he’s given to politicians his entire career and he thinks the system is broken,” said Alan Garten, general counsel at the Trump Organization, an umbrella company for Mr. Trump’s businesses. “Thinking that the system is broken doesn’t preclude him from giving to politicians when they are knocking on his door 365 days of the year.”
Mr. Trump has been open about his motives. “As a businessman and a very substantial donor to very important people, when you give, they do whatever the hell you want them to do,” he told The Wall Street Journal in July 2015 in discussing donations to Mrs. Clinton’s 2008 presidential campaign. “As a businessman, I need that.”
In total, Mr. Trump has given about $140,000 to a dozen people who either were state attorneys general or running for the post from 2001 to 2014, according to donation records. Some of the recipients returned the contributions. Totals before 2001 weren’t available.
Cynthia Darrison, a former fundraiser for ex-New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer, a Democrat, said Mr. Trump persuaded friends and colleagues to donate, too. “He did a fundraiser for Eliot,” she said. “He had all his vendors come in and write checks—no different than anybody who I asked to raise $250,000.”
A few weeks ago, Mr. Trump acknowledged paying a $2,500 fine to the Internal Revenue Service for a donation to a committee supporting the 2014 re-election of Florida’s Ms. Bondi. The $25,000 donation was paid by his charitable foundation, an improper use of nonprofit funds under IRS rules. Mr. Garten said it was a clerical error.
Ms. Bondi’s office at the time was reviewing a lawsuit by the New York attorney general alleging that Trump University, a real-estate academy, was a scam. A spokesman for Ms. Bondi has said she declined to pursue any action against Trump University because it had yielded only one consumer complaint in Florida and the business was already being investigated by New York.
Mr. Trump’s donations stretch back decades. Following a breakfast meeting with New York’s then-Attorney General Mr. Abrams in 1985, Mr. Trump pledged to contribute $15,000. At the time, Mr. Trump had three proposals to convert co-op apartments into condominiums, a deal that required permission from Mr. Abrams’s office, according to a 1989 report by the New York State Commission on Government Integrity.
The commission, which was broadly examining campaign finance in the state, found no conflicts from the donation under state law.
Under Mr. Abrams’s policy, contributors received blue slips with their thank-you notes instructing them to alert the campaign committee if they had a pending co-op conversion plan, which would allow the donation to be returned, Mr. Abrams said in a recent interview.
“In this case, we never heard from the Trump people,” Mr. Abrams said. The money wasn’t returned.
The state commission in its report on the matter said Mr. Trump’s donation showed that “the inference will be created, however unintentionally, that payment will be expected for favorable action by the officeholder.”
Mr. Garten, the Trump Organization general counsel, described as “politics as usual” the expectation that donors report potentially problematic contributions. “It’s sort of silly to flip the onus back on the person making the contribution,” he said, adding that the attorney general’s office knows if a donor has a government decision pending.
Mr. Spitzer, New York attorney general from 1999 to 2007, twice returned Mr. Trump’s donations, according to former Spitzer aides and public records.
Mr. Trump sent Mr. Spitzer a $10,000 check shortly after his 1999 election. The donation was returned because Mr. Trump had plans pending approval by Mr. Spitzer’s office.
In 2002 and 2003, Mr. Trump donated $21,000 to Mr. Spitzer around the time Mr. Trump was in a dispute with prospective buyers of a condo who wanted their six-figure deposit returned. Mr. Spitzer’s office had jurisdiction over the disagreement, which Mr. Trump later won.
Mr. Spitzer had a policy of refusing contributions from people who had business before his office, and asked donors to check a box on a form if they did. Ms. Darrison recalled Mr. Trump telling her he wasn’t aware of the condo deposit dispute. At the time, a lawyer for the buyers battling Mr. Trump argued Mr. Spitzer had a conflict of interest because of the donation, which was returned.
New York officials have said the policy of asking donors to police themselves is necessary to keep separate campaign and government work at the attorney general’s office.
Mr. Spitzer, who declined to comment, kept the donations Mr. Trump helped collect at the cocktail-party fundraiser described by Ms. Darrison.
California Attorney General Kamala Harris, speaking at a 2015 news conference in Los Angeles. California Attorney General Kamala Harris, speaking at a 2015 news conference in Los Angeles. Photo: Nick Ut/Associated Press
In California, Mr. Trump donated a total of $6,000 in 2011 and 2013 to state Attorney General Kamala Harris, a Democrat now running for Senate. Her opponent, U.S. Rep. Loretta Sanchez, also a Democrat, has questioned whether the Trump donations influenced the state’s probe of Trump University. Ivanka Trump, one of Mr. Trump’s daughters, gave $2,000 in 2014.
Nathan Click, a campaign aide for Ms. Harris, said she has since given the $6,000 to charity because she opposes Mr. Trump’s position on immigration. Criticisms over the money constitute “desperate political attacks,” Mr. Click said. Ms. Harris didn’t return Ivanka Trump’s donation, Mr. Click said.
A spokesman for the California attorney general’s office said it disclosed its investigation of Trump University in October 2013, part of a probe of for-profit colleges that’s ongoing.
Mr. Trump has previously denied allegations leveled against Trump University, saying students got their money’s worth.
The first subpoena related to Trump University was served in 2011—shortly after a meet-and-greet for New York Attorney General Mr. Schneiderman in June hosted by Mr. Trump’s daughter Ivanka and her husband, Jared Kushner, and attended by their friends. The Trump campaign didn't respond to requests for comment from Ms. Trump and Mr. Kushner.
Mr. Schneiderman also accepted donations from Ms. Trump and from Mr. Trump’s attorney, Michael Cohen, documents show. Donald Trump had donated $12,500 to Mr. Schneiderman during his run for office in 2010. Mr. Cohen didn’t respond to a request for comment.
New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman, pictured at a news conference to announce a state-based effort to combat climate change in March, 2016. New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman, pictured at a news conference to announce a state-based effort to combat climate change in March, 2016. Photo: Mike Segar/Reuters
Turning the tables, after Mr. Schneiderman sued Trump University for fraud in 2013, Mr. Trump filed a complaint with the New York State Joint Commission on Public Ethics that accused the attorney general of violating state conflicts-of-interest law by soliciting the real-estate mogul and his family for donations while pursuing the investigation.
Mr. Schneiderman met Ms. Trump’s and Mr. Kushner’s friends “in hope of gaining their respect, thereby assuring their financial support,” according to Mr. Trump’s complaint. “Mr. Schneiderman’s conduct represents precisely the type of behavior that undermines public confidence in government,” Mr. Trump’s lawyer, Stephen Meister, wrote in the complaint.
The state ethics commission last year decided against taking action. Months later, in an advisory opinion, it suggested state elected officials with law-enforcement powers not raise funds from people subject to investigation.
Mr. Schneiderman returned the contributions by Ms. Trump and Mr. Cohen received during his investigation, said the attorney general’s spokesman, Eric Soufer. Mr. Soufer said the attorney general is “willing to follow the facts, wherever they lead.”