Donald Trump Donald John TrumpBubba Wallace to be driver of Michael Jordan, Denny Hamlin NASCAR team Graham: GOP will confirm Trump's Supreme Court nominee before the election Southwest Airlines, unions call for six-month extension of government aid MORE has made campaign donations to state attorneys general when their offices were considering issues regarding his businesses, The Wall Street Journal reported.

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According to a review of Trump's political donations by The Wall Street Journal, Trump, his family and associates donated particularly to attorneys general in New York, including Robert Abrams in the 1980s and current Attorney General Eric Schneiderman.

The Republican presidential nominee often made these contributions at times when his companies had decisions pending in the attorney general's office, such as real estate development projects that needed approval.

The Wall Street Journal found that between 2001 and 2014, Trump gave about $140,000 to a dozen people who either served as state attorneys general or were running for the position.

Some of the donations were reportedly returned.

Trump has faced criticism during his presidential campaign regarding an improper $25,000 donation his charity made to a group supporting Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi (R).

The 2013 donation came at the same time Bondi's office was considering whether to investigate a fraud lawsuit against Trump University.

Trump admitted he paid a $2,500 fine to the Internal Revenue Service for the improper donation, which his team described as a clerical error.

A lawyer for the Trump Organization told the Journal, "It’s sort of silly to flip the onus back on the person making the contribution."

“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.

“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.”

The GOP nominee in July 2015 said he was a businessman and had been 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. “As a businessman, I need that.”