Stories
Slash Boxes
Comments

SoylentNews is people

posted by martyb on Monday November 21 2016, @12:33PM   Printer-friendly
from the never-say-"never" dept.

Courthouse News reports

President-elect Donald Trump will pay [$21 million,] the bulk of a $25 million class action settlement, to students who sued the businessman-turned-world leader nearly seven years ago in California, just days before the first San Diego case was set to go to trial.

The class attorneys told U.S. District Judge Gonzalo Curiel at a hearing in San Diego federal court [November 18] that all 7,000 class members in the two San Diego cases--Low v. Trump University and Cohen v. Trump--would get at least half if not all of what they spent on a Trump University real estate education. Attorney Jason Forge said they were able to "maximize recovery" for Trump University students by waiving their attorney's fees and litigating the case on behalf of the students for free.

[...] Class attorney Rachel Jensen said the students can finally "pay off their credit cards and move on with their lives".

[...] The Low case included Trump University students in California, New York, and Florida, who sued Trump in 2010 over claims he defrauded them when they invested up to $35,000 to learn insider real estate secrets from instructors purportedly handpicked by Trump. The president-elect turned out to have little involvement in the school and his attorneys said he relied on "sales puffery" common in advertising to capitalize on Trump's name.

New York's Attorney General followed suit, suing Trump University in 2013. At the heart of that case was the title "university", which New York's Department of Education had warned the real estate school it could not use because it was not an accredited institution.

[Continues...]

The Christian Science Monitor continues:

If Mr. Trump had to stand trial in the Trump University case scheduled for late November, it would have been the first time in history that a president-elect gave testimony in a lawsuit. On Friday, Trump's lawyers told the federal judge involved in the case that Trump is currently too busy with political demands to stand trial. What kind of precedent does this set for Trump's administration?

[...] If the lawsuits [against Trump] aren't settled now, they may not see the light of day for four to eight years, say legal experts. Political science observers say that this puts the ball in Trump's court where litigation is concerned.

[...] Allegations of fraud have dogged Trump throughout the election season, leading the Republican candidate to claim that in such a politicized climate, he would be unable to receive a fair trial.

After his victory over Democratic challenger Hillary Clinton, Trump's lawyers attempted to delay the trial, originally scheduled for Nov. 28, until after the president-elect's [inauguration??]. Before that time, they said, Trump will be too busy learning the presidential ropes to engage in litigation.

[...] Whether or not Trump stays out of court while he serves as president, experts say that the Paula Jones case during Bill Clinton's presidency (she sued him for sexual harassment) is evidence that the legal system does occasionally allow civil cases to proceed against the president during his or her administration.


Original Submission

 
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.
Display Options Threshold/Breakthrough Mark All as Read Mark All as Unread
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 21 2016, @02:46PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 21 2016, @02:46PM (#430531)

    .... Now what was that about Donald, er, Hillary being corrupt and a criminal again? Yes, ladies and gentlemen, our next President who just got a settlement on fraud. Can't wait to see how he makes America great again.... or was that just a con job too?

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 21 2016, @03:37PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 21 2016, @03:37PM (#430566)

     

  • (Score: 1) by khallow on Monday November 21 2016, @03:59PM

    by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Monday November 21 2016, @03:59PM (#430578) Journal
    Well, think of all those Democrat scandals over the past eight years that should have at least resulted in a serious law enforcement investigation: the Fast and Furious gun-walking scandal, IRS special treatment of certain applications for non profit status, and two associated with Hillary Clinton, the Clinton Foundation and the damn illegal email server. Trump has some low lying fruit for a public display of fighting corruption (should that be a thing he's interested in, of course), assuming Obama doesn't pardon the lot of them first.
    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 21 2016, @04:14PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 21 2016, @04:14PM (#430587)

      Yes indeed, I wouldn't say that Hillary or the Democratic leadership aren't likewise crooks. On the other hand, they didn't devote significant parts of their campaign showing how corrupt and criminal Trump was. Maybe they should have.

      • (Score: 4, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 21 2016, @04:20PM

        by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 21 2016, @04:20PM (#430594)

        It would have made no difference at all.
        People like khallow would have just stuck their fingers in their ears and said it was the corrupt media telling lies and supporting Clinton.
        Witch-hunt logic is just too addictive.

      • (Score: 2) by cubancigar11 on Tuesday November 22 2016, @10:05AM

        by cubancigar11 (330) on Tuesday November 22 2016, @10:05AM (#431146) Homepage Journal

        They did, just not the financial fraud part. Probably out of fear of pot calling kettle black. So they chose muhsogannyy and racism. Trump countered it with getting legal immigrant votes from Indians (the real ones) and Chinese. Muhsogannyy was never going to a good card to play anyway, since in real life, most women are not worried about rape as much as feminists want everyone to be, and most women do actually enjoy being part of a family which has men.

    • (Score: 2, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 21 2016, @04:35PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 21 2016, @04:35PM (#430609)

      IRS special treatment of certain applications for non profit status

      Congress writes vague laws and then under-funds agencies like the IRS, then complains when the agency interprets the laws different than they personally want. The Tea Party groups were playing tax games to hide their political status.

  • (Score: 3, Interesting) by Sulla on Monday November 21 2016, @04:47PM

    by Sulla (5173) on Monday November 21 2016, @04:47PM (#430629) Journal

    Our options were a jackass of a man who may have screwed over students or a jackass of a woman who may have committed espionage. Not to take trumps supreme jackassery lightly, but he did keep state secrets on a poorly secured home server despite being told not to by state department officials and white house directives.

    --
    Ceterum censeo Sinae esse delendam
    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 21 2016, @04:58PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 21 2016, @04:58PM (#430647)

      > espionage.

      I do not think that word means what you think it means.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 21 2016, @05:19PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 21 2016, @05:19PM (#430670)

      Not to mention that nobody died as a result of this fraud case.

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 21 2016, @07:44PM

        by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 21 2016, @07:44PM (#430783)

        Three trump university victims committed suicide.

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 21 2016, @05:55PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 21 2016, @05:55PM (#430703)

    whitewater.