Trump Set to Meet with Florida Attorney General

                                      

After taking a victory lap Thursday with his first post-election rally, Donald Trump is returning to the task of assembling a cabinet and staff for his incoming administration.

The president-elect has no public events planned on Friday but is expected to hole up in Trump Tower for meetings with various public figures.

Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi is among those scheduled for a meeting. Bondi is on Trump's presidential transition team as one of its many vice chairs.

During the election, Trump faced questions over a $25,000 check that the Donald J. Trump Foundation sent to Bondi's fundraising committee in 2013. Critics said the donation looked like an attempt to sway Bondi's office against joining a lawsuit against the now-defunct Trump University. Trump and Bondi said the contribution had no link to her office's ultimately deciding not to join the lawsuit.

Unrelated to the question of whether the contribution was intended to influence Bondi, the donation to her political fundraising committee was found to violate tax laws and led to an Internal Revenue Service penalty of $2,500 penalty against the foundation this year, according to the Washington Post. Last month, Trump settled all of the three lawsuits against Trump University for $25 million.

Trump is also set to meet Friday with former United Nations Ambassador John Bolton, who has emerged as a contender for the vital position of secretary of state.

And the president-elect is to meet with former Defense Secretary Bob Gates.

Trump and Gates, who headed the Department of Defense under Presidents Obama and George W. Bush, were openly and highly critical of each other during the presidential race. But Gates is expected on Friday to make his second trip in two days to Trump Tower. On Thursday, he met with retired Gen. Mike Flynn, whom Trump has picked to become national security adviser.

Among others expected to meet with Trump in New York Friday are Georgia Sen. David Perdue, retired Rear Adm. Jay Cohen and Heidi Heitkamp, a Democratic senator from North Dakota.

Sen. Heitkamp, in a statement, said she "appreciate[s] the president-elect inviting [her] for a meeting."

“Every single day, my work is motivated first and foremost by how I can be most helpful to the people of North Dakota," the statement read. "They are my driving force and have been throughout my career in public service. Whatever job I do, I hope to work with the president-elect and all of my colleagues in Congress on both sides of the aisle to best support my state.”

Source: Abcnew