A federal judge denied Donald Trump’s effort to have a fraud case involving Trump University thrown out because there was “a genuine issue” about whether Trump “knowingly participated” in a fraud scheme.
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Media organizations including The San Diego Union-Tribune had sought release of two videotaped depositions of Trump, taken in December and January.
“There is every reason to believe that release of the deposition videos would contribute to an on-going “media frenzy” that would increase the difficulty of seating an impartial jury”, said U.S. District Judge Gonzalo Curiel in his ruling on Tuesday.
But the judge rejected Trump’s bid to have the case thrown out.
Trump’s lawyers had fought against the release of the excerpts, saying they would be exploited by the media and others during the presidential campaign.
The lawsuit accuses Trump and Trump University of deceptive practices and scamming thousands of students who enrolled, thinking it would make them rich in the real estate market.
The judge also concluded that whether Trump personally directed Trump University’s marketing and whether his sales pitch for the seminars amounted only to harmless “puffery” would be questions for a jury to decide.
Though asking for summary judgment is a routine legal maneuver usually dismissed by the judiciary, today’s ruling denying that judgment more or less ensures the case will go to trial.
Curiel rejected Trump’s argument that a civil lawsuit under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, or RICO, wasn’t a proper vehicle to address consumer claims.
The cases are Low v. Trump University LLC, 10-cv-00940, and Cohen v. Trump, 13-cv-02519, U.S. District Court, Southern District of California (San Diego). Curiel is the same judge who was the subject of Trump’s public comments about his “Mexican” heritage earlier this spring. Although Curiel’s parents had migrated from Mexico, he himself had been born in the American state of Indiana.
Trial on one of the cases – which covers customers in California, Texas and Florida only – is set to begin in November.
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A mental evaluation has been ordered for a man charged with brutal attacks that killed three homeless men in San Diego and badly injured two others.
