Donald Trump. Photo courtesy of Politico.
Summary: Presidential candidate Donald Trump must defend his previous business venture Trump University in court and from his critics.
Is Trump University a big loser? On May 6, Donald Trump will have to let the courts know the answer.
Trump has been named a witness in a civil trial alleging that Trump University is a sham. According to Politico, critics of Trump University say students paid thousands of dollars for real estate seminars in hopes of getting rich, but the critics say those classes were useless.
It’s noted that the now defunct Trump University was not an actual university nor did it have a campus, and it has been a recent open sore in Trump’s campaign. CBS News reports that at Thursday’s Republican debate in Houston, for instance, Marco Rubio went after the university, saying it was “fake.” Trump responded that Rubio’s accusation was “nonsense.”
May 6 is the scheduled date for the last pre-trial. The case was filed by 150 former Trump University students, and court records show that Donald Trump is listed as a witness for both sides. The May date could effect the presidential candidate’s campaigning as there are primaries in Nevada, West Virginia, Oregon, and Washington.
Concurrently, New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman filed a separate lawsuit against Trump University in 2013, and the fraud case is still pending.
“We started looking at Trump University and discovered that it was a classic bait-and-switch scheme. It was a scam, starting with the fact that it was not a university,” Schneiderman told CNN.
After news of Schneiderman’s lawsuit, CBS News interviewed former students. While some say they were satisfied with their education, others said that instructors urged them to sign up for a $35,000 mentorship that they couldn’t afford. According to those students, the instructors told them to increase their credit card limits in order to pay for more training.
One of Trump’s attorney’s Alan Garten told CBS News that students need to take personal responsibility.
“People have to take responsibility for themselves, and you use the tools and move forward. As far as just simply, ‘oh, Mr. Trump is rich and should just refund everyone money’… Trump University was not a charitable institution,” Garten said.
Months ago, a judge decertified a part of the class action suit, giving a partial victory to Trump.
Source: Politico
Source: CBS News