TRUMP TO PAY $25 MILLION TO SETTLE LAWSUITS OVER TRUMP UNIVERSITY
East County News Service
November 19, 2016 (San Diego) — President-Elect Donald Trump has agreed to pay $25 million to settle lawsuits representing thousands of students alleging fraud and racketeering involving the now defunct Trump University, which was never an accredited school.
The settlement announcement Friday came just an hour before U.S. District Judge Gonzalo Curiel was set to hear arguments on motion by Trump’s attorneys to postpone the trial slated to begin November 28th in San Diego. Judge Curiel earlier this month denied a motion by Trump’s legal team that sought to exclude campaign statements and videos as evidence.
An attorney for the plaintiffs, Jason Forge, called the deal a “great result” adding that $21 million of the $25 million will stay in San Diego to reimburse students for losses here. The remainder will go to Trump University students in New York, City News Service reports.
Class action lawsuit members should receive at least half of their money back under the agreement, perhaps as soon as three or four months.
Trump did not admit liability under the settlement terms. He previously claimed Curiel’s Mexican ancestry should disqualify him from the case due to bias given Trump’s campaign pledge to deport undocumented Mexican immigrants and build a border wall (even though Curiel was born in the U.S. and is a citizen who could not be deported.)
The prospect of a trial in which questions about Trump’s ethics and business practices would have been raised had cast a pall over Trump’s election as he began preparations to be sworn in as president in January.
Trump’s lead attorney called the settlement agreement “a victory for everybody.”