Donald Trump used his charitable foundation to pay off more than a quarter-million dollars in personal and business legal fees, a possible violation of "self-dealing" laws, according to a Washington Post report Tuesday.

All told, the Post found payments totaling $243,000 from the Trump's charity's coffers were used to settle two legal disputes in 2007 and 2010.

In 2006, Trump's Mar-a-Lago Club in Palm Beach, Florida, was found to be in violation of town rules when it installed an 80-foot pole for an American flag, almost twice as high as the maximum 42 feet.

Trump went to court to protest the $1,250-per-day fine, claiming a pole meeting the town's height requirements "would fail to appropriately express the magnitude of Donald J. Trump's patriotism."

In the settlement, in which the town waived $120,000 in fines, and in return Trump made donations exceeding the amount of the fines to Fisher House, an organization that provides housing for the families of military personnel and veterans undergoing medical treatment, and to the American Veterans Disabled for Life Memorial.

The Post reports Trump sent the town copies of the checks – $100,000 to Fisher House and $25,000 to the disabled veterans memorial – that showed the money came from the Trump Foundation, an apparent violation of laws that bar the people running non-profits from putting a charitable foundation's money toward personal or business interests.

In 2010, Trump's foundation made a similar payment after Trump's golf course in Westchester County, N.Y. was sued for trying to back out of paying prize money for a charity tournament, the Post found.

Martin Greenberg won a $1 million prize after a hole-in-one, but filed a lawsuit after Trump National said he had won nothing, because the shot had not gone at least 150 yards, the minimum for the prize. The course had allegedly made the hole too short.

In the resulting settlement, Trump National sent a check of $158,000 to the Martin Greenberg Foundation, both foundations' records show the money coming from the Trump Foundation.

Experts tell the Post both cases are clear cases of self-dealing, because Trump used the foundation's money to meet business obligations, rather than pay from his personal or business accounts.

Moreover, the money from Trump's Foundation was not his own cash to start with.

Trump has given no money to his personal foundation since 2009, tax records show, instead funneling the donations from others and often taking the credit .

The Post's David Fahrenthold, whose months-long search for the "tens of millions of dollars" in charitable donations Trump claims he has personally given to charity has turned up just a single donation of less than $10,000 – to the Police Athletic League of New York City, which the organization in fact says may have been a bookeeping error.

I've now called 338 charities, looking for proof @realDonaldTrump gives his own $ to charity. Haven't found much. pic.twitter.com/BrDCGO5pO7 — David Fahrenthold (@Fahrenthold) September 16, 2016

Other items in the Trump Foundation's donation records have raised red flags, many of them first reported by Fahrenthold's exhaustive search.

The $25,000 payment from the Trump Foundation to the political group backing Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi, for which Trump has already paid a fine because charitable foundations are barred from making political contributions, has garnered by far the most attention.

Trump's campaign says the donation came from the foundation as a result of a clerical error and has vehemently denied the contribution was a pay-to-play scheme, and his payment had no impact on Bondi's decision a few weeks after the check arrived not to have her office join a fraud lawsuit against Trump University.

On Tuesday, Bondi broke her silence on the issue, saying it could not have been quid pro quo because her office had "no investigation" into Trump University when the donation was made.

"I just knew there was nothing improper," Bondi said at a press conference Tuesday. "I will never let money from anyone affect what I do. I'm proud of my office. I'm proud of the work that we do."

"I would never, ever trade any campaign donation – that's absurd – for some type of favor to anyone," she said.

New reporting Tuesday by The Huffington Post uncovered campaign payments to a New York official who later went to prison for a different pay-to-play bribery scandal.

In 2002, Trump filed a $500 million lawsuit against the city of New York in an effort to get his property taxes reduced, and in 2003, he was eventually awarded a 17 percent reduction in taxes for his newest building and a special tax abatement that saved him $97 million in taxes.

Around the same time, the Huffington Post found Trump made at least $45,000 in donations to Democrat Alan Hevesi, the New York state comptroller who was among those evaluating the lawsuits. Hevesi eventually pleaded guilty to and went to prison for accepting bribes from a California businessman to send state contracts his way, and while there's no evidence Trump's contributions were illegal, his generous support aided Hevesi's 2002 re-election and Hevesi helped Trump receive a favorable outcome in his lawsuit.

Trump also used foundation money to make a $5,000 contribution to the D.C. Preservation League, non-profit organization that was helpful to his efforts to remodel the new Trump International Hotel, which opened in the historic Old Post Pavilion in Washington last week. That contribution, the Post reported, bought him advertising space in programs for three events that "drew Washington's real estate elite," promoting his hotels with glossy photos but making no mention of charitable giving.

And he spent $10,000 from Trump Foundation accounts to buy a portrait of himself at a 2014 gala he hosted at the Mar-a-Lago Club for the Unicorn Children's Foundation, which benefits children with developmental and learning disorders.

Unicorn Foundation executive director Sharon Alexander confirmed to the Post that the check came from the Trump Foundation, and that he received nothing from Trump personally.

That portrait is different from another he bought at a charity in 2007 for $20,000 – also with Trump Foundation cash – at a different Mar-a-Lago event.

I'm looking for 3 items @realdonaldtrump bought w/ charity $:

Tebow helmet ($12K)

6ft portrait ($20K)

4ft portrait ($10K)

DM me with tips! https://t.co/TB37zoLko0 — David Fahrenthold (@Fahrenthold) September 20, 2016

Trump's campaign has largely ignored requests to comment on the allegations raised by the Post's reporting, other than to deny any wrongdoing and claim – falsely – that Trump's foundation is funded by his own money .

Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton, who has faced questions about her own family's charitable organization, called on Trump to release his tax returns in the wake of Tuesday's revelations about his foundation.

"Clearly the Trump Foundation is as much a charitable organization as Trump University is an institute of higher education," said spokeswoman Christina Reynolds. "Trump's version of charity is taking money from others to settle his own legal issues and buy at least two pictures of himself, which experts say is a clear violation of laws governing charitable organizations."