A judge has denied Trump’s request to quash a class-action lawsuit accusing him of fraud
Donald Trump has suffered another legal setback in the ongoing court battle over his now-defunct real estate training program.
Trump had attempted to block former students suing as a group in a California case that accused Trump University of fraud, Bloomberg reported. The program is accused of defrauding students by not persuading them to pay tens of thousands of dollars for classes that turned out to be high-pressure sales pitches for yet more classes.
One of the key claims in the Calfornia class-action suit is that students had believed that the school was accredited, Bloomberg reported. Trump had argued that one of the key plaintiffs in the case, Sonny Low, wasn’t concerned with whether Trump University was an accredited program. But on Monday, U.S. District Court Judge Gonzalo Curiel rejected that argument.
According to Curiel, the Republican presidential nominee’s lawyers were relying on a “selective interpretation” of Low’s deposition. In the deposition, Low had said that accreditation “was not even a consideration for me. I went there because it was Trump University, that he created.”
But Curiel pointed to other portions of the deposition that indicated that Low believed the university was accredited because of Trump’s association with it, Bloomberg reported.
“Besides being a multi-billionaire in real estate, he set up Trum University, which I would presume that he took all the steps necessary to set up a proper institution that he could call a university, with his name next to it,” Low said in the deposition.
Trump is also asking Curiel to put the kibosh on a second class-action suit involving the university, according to Bloomberg. In that suit, Trump is being accused of racketeering.
Trump had attempted to block former students suing as a group in a California case that accused Trump University of fraud, Bloomberg reported. The program is accused of defrauding students by not persuading them to pay tens of thousands of dollars for classes that turned out to be high-pressure sales pitches for yet more classes.
One of the key claims in the Calfornia class-action suit is that students had believed that the school was accredited, Bloomberg reported. Trump had argued that one of the key plaintiffs in the case, Sonny Low, wasn’t concerned with whether Trump University was an accredited program. But on Monday, U.S. District Court Judge Gonzalo Curiel rejected that argument.
According to Curiel, the Republican presidential nominee’s lawyers were relying on a “selective interpretation” of Low’s deposition. In the deposition, Low had said that accreditation “was not even a consideration for me. I went there because it was Trump University, that he created.”
But Curiel pointed to other portions of the deposition that indicated that Low believed the university was accredited because of Trump’s association with it, Bloomberg reported.
“Besides being a multi-billionaire in real estate, he set up Trum University, which I would presume that he took all the steps necessary to set up a proper institution that he could call a university, with his name next to it,” Low said in the deposition.
Trump is also asking Curiel to put the kibosh on a second class-action suit involving the university, according to Bloomberg. In that suit, Trump is being accused of racketeering.
