Judge Gonzalo Curiel declined to release video of Trump testifying in a lawsuit filed by former Trump University students, a relief to Trump’s lawyers, who had argued the videos could be used for attack ads as Trump heads toward the November election.
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In March, at a Republican debate, Trump claimed that Trump University was now rated by the BBB with an A. Trump was also reported to have claimed to have received a communication from the BBB at the debate that evening. In a written decision released Tuesday, Curiel said the former students had raised a genuine question about whether the real estate magnate had “knowingly participated in a scheme to defraud”.
The videos have emerged as a significant issue in the case, in federal court in San Diego. (Anyone who has watched one of the Republican candidate’s stump speeches knows what they are talking about.) Those spontaneous remarks, as well as facial expressions and body language, show “complete and utter unfamiliarity” with the particulars of how Trump University was run, the plaintiffs’ lawyers argued. While Trump appears to be attempting to distance himself from the university, at the time it operated, advertising was reported to claim that Trump had “integral involvement” and that he personally selected the school’s instructors.
An attorney for the media, Dan Laidman, said release of the video depositions would add accuracy to the case and complaints of possible harm to Trump were “abstract”.
U.S. District Judge Gonzalo Curiel declines the invitation to draw this line, writing in his ruling, “It is not for this Court to effectuate Defendant’s policy preferences in contravention of the settled approach of the higher courts”. Trump supporters have also pointed to his membership in La Raza Lawyers of San Diego, a San Diego Hispanic legal organization, that they say is connected to the National Council of La Raza, a more liberal political group.
The media requested full transcripts and video of Trump testifying at an all-day deposition December 10 at his NY office and for three hours on January 21 in a Las Vegas law office.
Trump set off an uproar in May when he accused Curiel of being biased against him because of the candidate’s pledge to build a border wall between the United States and Mexico.
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A third case against Trump University brought by NY attorney general Eric Schneiderman is also heading to trial after a hearing Tuesday. One of the central fraud claims in the suits – he is facing two separate class actions over the business – is that customers were duped by claims that Trump “hand-picked” instructors for the seminars. “The Court does not engage in credibility determinations, weighing of evidence, or drawing of legitimate inferences from the facts; these functions are for the [jury]”, he wrote.
