Trump Defends His $25 Million Settlement of Trump University Lawsuits

Donald Trump settled for $25 million a lawsuit brought by the state of NY over charges that he cheated students of his short-lived Trump University, arguing in tweets that he just wanted to focus on the presidency.

The cases involved a lawsuit by NY state and two class-action suits in California against the university, which promised to reveal Trump’s real estate investing “secrets” to people who enrolled in the courses.

Former students of Trump University who enrolled on courses which cost $35,000 in exchange for Mr Trump’s “real estate secrets” have accused the billionaire businessman of fraud.

The deal came on the same day that a hearing was scheduled in federal court in San Diego, where Trump’s lawyers were to argue for a delay in the November 28 start of one of the trials.

This is a developing story. I don’t believe in it.

About 6,000 students who say they lost out as a result of signing up, and who later joined two class action suits in San Diego, California, will share $21m, if a federal judge approves the settlement.

“We definitely detected a change of tone and change of approach” after the election, plaintiffs’ attorney Jason Forge said when the agreement was announced Friday.

It’s not a surprise that Trump would settle the suit to take it off his plate before taking office, especially given his apparently contentious relationship with Curiel.

While denying any wrongdoing, Trump agreed on Friday to pay $25 million to settle the lawsuits. If the case went to trial, a jury could have found him liable for fraud, possibly opening the door to impeachment proceedings on those grounds, some legal scholars said.

Negotiations over the Trump University deal were handled in part by lawyers for Schneiderman, who had filed suit against Trump University in 2013.

In the NY complaint, Attorney General Eric. The remainder would go to the attorney general in NY to reimburse plaintiffs in that case.

“This is a case I could have settled very easily, but I don’t settle cases very easily when I’m right”, Trump had said in March.

Last week, at a pretrial hearing in San Diego, Trump’s lawyers said they were open to settlement.

Settling the case removes a major distraction from Trump’s ongoing transition to the presidency, and also spares the new president a potentially embarrassing courtroom defeat. U.S. District Judge Gonzalo Curiel, who Trump personally attacked during the campaign, had not yet ruled on the delay issue, but the plaintiffs were strongly opposed to the idea, saying the soon-to-be POTUS was only going to be busier after the inauguration.

“The task is momentous, exceedingly complex, and requires careful coordination involving the respective staffs and teams of both President (Barack) Obama and President-elect Trump, ” Trumps attorneys wrote.