While much of the "liberal" media is busy gushing non-stop about Hillary Clinton's emails and the Clinton Foundation, Donald Trump is getting a free pass again. (The "liberal" part of liberal media is a joke. The media is not largely liberal.)
Yes, Clinton used bad judgment in regard to using her personal cell phone and server for emails - and said so with an apology - but committed no crime. Yet every talk show, every news discussion, virtually every campaign story repeats it as though it is all new news, ad nauseum, everyday.
Meanwhile, over the past months one had to follow every little thread of news to catch even disparate pieces of a story that Donald Trump gave $25,000 illegally to Pam Bondi, the attorney general of Florida, at almost exactly the same time the Sunshine State - like other states - was weighing whether to get in on the investigation of Trump University after New York filed suit.
And guess what - Bondi decided not to join in. Can we say "pay to play?"
The Associated Press reported in June that Florida's attorney general personally solicited a political contribution from Donald Trump around the same time her office deliberated joining the New York probe of alleged fraud at Trump University and its affiliates. The money came from a Trump family foundation - in apparent violation of rules surrounding political activities by charities. A political group backing Bondi's re-election, called And Justice for All, reported receiving the check Sept. 17, 2013 - four days after Bondi's office publicly announced she was considering joining the New York state probe, according to a 2013 report in the Orlando Sentinel.
"After the check came in, Bondi's office nixed suing Trump, citing insufficient grounds to proceed," the June AP story stated.
The AP story said Bondi declined to comment, but referred questions to her political consultant Marc Reichelderfer. And Reichelderfer told AP that Bondi spoke with Trump "several weeks" before her office publicly announced it was deliberating whether to join the lawsuit. Reichelderfer also said Bondi was unaware of dozens of consumer complaints received by her office about Trump's real-estate seminars at the time she requested the donation.
"The process took at least several weeks, from the time they spoke to the time they received the contribution," Reichelderfer told AP.
You'll recall that Trump has bragged that he expects and receives favors from politicians to whom he gives money.
"When I want something I get it," Trump said at an Iowa rally in January. "When I call, they kiss my a--. It's true."
All of this was in the Associated Press story in June. Three months ago. But the "liberal" media just keeps talking about the Clintons.
Part of the blame for such one-sided coverage probably should be leveled at the FBI. When before have you ever seen the FBI dribble out pieces of an investigation after telling you there is no crime? Since when does the FBI show you "its homework" when there's no indictment, as MSNBC's Lawrence O'Donald said Tuesday on Morning Joe.
But the Trump/Bondi story has finally begun to gain steam after an official at Trump's company acknowledged that Trump paid the IRS a $2,500 penalty for the illegal contribution.
Now, of course, the Donald is back-pedaling. First, the family foundation incorrectly reported that the $25,000 was paid not to the pro-Bondi political group, but to a similarly named charity in Kansas that got no Trump money.
Then Monday, Trump, in rejecting any impropriety, told reporters: "I never spoke to her, first of all, she's a fine person beyond reproach," he said when asked about the controversy. "I never even spoke to her about it at all. She's a fine person. Never spoken to her about it. Never."
Apparently Trump didn't read the AP story in June - the one that quotes the Bondi political consultant saying she solicited the contribution and it took awhile to get after "they spoke." If he had, perhaps he and Bondi might have gotten their stories straight.
It's worth noting that this isn't the first time Bondi - who gave a Trump support speech at the Republican National Convention - has been under a media microscope.
In October 2014, Politico wrote about lobbyists bearing gifts and courting favor with attorneys general - the people's lawyers. That story mentioned Bondi several times, including a narrative about the lobbying firm of Dickstein Shapiro's successful effort to dissuade Bondi, then a fast-rising star in the Republican Party, from pursuing a lawsuit filed by her predecessor against online reservation companies, including Travelocity and Priceline. That suit was based on allegations that the travel firms were conspiring to improperly withhold taxes on hotel rooms booked in the state.
"Dismissed before hearing," the state court docket shows, as the case was closed in April 2013. A spokesman for Bondi said her office dropped the matter after concluding, as Dickstein had argued, that state tax law was ambiguous.
Dickstein also took unusual steps to promote Bondi's political career, arranging a cover article on her in InsideCounsel, a magazine for corporate lawyers, and helping with an elaborate fundraising event in her honor at - you guessed it - the Mar-a-Lago Club in Palm Beach, owned by Donald Trump.
The Clinton email and Clinton Foundation witch hunts should be retired. Trump's poor judgment and double dealings are the real deal.