We just got a very angry email and subsequent very angry phone call from someone claiming to be Whitney Ray, Media Relations stooge for Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi. I’m going to reprint the email in full for your viewing pleasure, and in case there was any confusion as to what the Florida AG’s office’s stance on the Bondi/Trump fracas is.

Also just so there is no confusion about what they were responding to, here is Moe’s original story on the subject.

To wit, their position is that they decided not to join in the suit against Trump University because New York already had a case going, and Bondi was not involved in the decision. This aspect of the story has been reported far and wide. To the surprise of no one, the AG’s office does not admit wrongdoing.

What’s bizarre about this is that this guy, Whitney Ray, seems to be under the impression that we, as bloggers, have some sort of obligation to call him or his office every time we are going to write about a widely-reported news story. Spoiler alert: we don’t. Even if we were the Washington Post, we wouldn’t. Not after their position on the matter has become abundantly clear, in any case.

Even more bizarre is that he can’t point to a single inaccurate thing that Moe actually said in his story, because there was no such thing. The facts remain undisputed: 1. The Florida AG’s office received a request to look into the Trump U. affair; 2. Trump donated a substantial sum to a pro-Bondi ECO; 3. The Florida AG’s office decided not to pursue the case against Trump University. The fact that Moe omitted Bondi’s preferred explanation for this series of events does not make his story erroneous in any way.

Furthermore, the facts as they have been uncovered today reveal that the Trump Foundation’s donation to Bondi’s ECO was illegally not reported to the IRS, at least possibly for the reason that it could have jeopardized their tax exempt status. This much has been admitted to by the Trump campaign, which (unsurprisingly) also has a completely innocuous and innocent explanation for this whole sorry affair: just a clerical mistake!

Anyway, here is this guy’s email, in case anyone wants to read it:

Good Morning,

Without contacting our communications office or asking even one question your writer Moe Lane, reported the following false information straight from the CREW press release:

“Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi in 2013 was considering joining in a lawsuit against Trump University.  Shortly thereafter, a check for $25,000 was sent to Bondi’s campaign political action committee [electioneering communications organization] “And Justice For All” by the Trump Foundation. AG Bondi (who has since endorsed Trump) ended up not joining in on the Trump University lawsuit.”

Since Moe refused to ask even one question, let me ask you a couple:

1) How many states joined the New York litigation?

2) How many complaints had this administration received at the time of the original erroneous reports that our office was investigating or considering joining the nonexistent multistate lawsuit?

Since you do not seem to have time to ask these questions, I will answer them for you.

No state joined the NY suit as it sought relief for any and all aggrieved consumers nationwide.

This administration, at the time of the erroneous reports about our office not “joining a lawsuit,” had received ONE complaint. After a staff review of the ONE complaint, the decision was rightfully made by our Citizens Services Office to refer the complainant to the New York Attorney General’s Office, as their lawsuit sought relief for any and all aggrieved consumers nationwide.  

Please correct your factually inaccurate story immediately.

Thank you,

Whitney

• Whitney Ray
• Director of Media Relations
• Office of the Attorney General
• The Capitol, Suite PL-01
• Tallahassee, Fla. 32399-1050
• Office: 850-245-0150

Needless to say, the Florida Attorney General’s side of the story is now on record at RedState. No correction will be forthcoming, because no errors have even been alleged. It isn’t our fault that the facts in this story look so ugly.