Trump Univ. program was fraud, says NY Atty. Gen.

Here's the "Trump University" scandal in a nutshell, from an article by Igor Bobic, Associate Politics Editor, Huffington Post:

"New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman on Thursday took aim at the now-defunct Trump University, which has been accused of being a scam.

“'In New York, we have laws against business fraud, we have laws against consumer fraud,' Schneiderman said.  'We have a law against running an illegal, unlicensed university. This never was a university. . . . [You can't just call something a university] . . . without actually qualifying and registering, so it was really a fraud from beginning to end.'

"'Trump University, an unaccredited for-profit company launched by presumptive GOP nominee Donald Trump in 2005, offered courses in real estate and investment.  Documents unsealed by a federal judge earlier this week pertaining to a lawsuit against the venture revealed how its salespeople were told to deliberately mislead potential customers, manipulate their emotions and ignore their concerns about parting ways with, in some cases, tens of thousands of dollars.

“'It’s fraud. This is just straight up fraud. It’s like selling people something you say is a Mercedes and it turns out to be a Volkswagen,' Schneiderman added in a separate interview on MSNBC’s 'Morning Joe.' . . .

"He added: 'Donald Trump’s sole role was in marketing. He was the pitchman. We have the videos of him making these false promises. He was not involved in the curriculum. He never met or trained the instructors [as claimed in their sales pitch]. But he was clearly in charge of pitching this scam university to people, convincing them that it was his personal secrets and saying things like ‘come to the weekend seminar.’ ‘Learn what it took me a whole lifetime to learn in real estate.’ ‘You can get rich, too.’ That was his role.

"Democratic presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton had similar words about the venture on Wednesday, during a rally at Rutgers University in Newark, New Jersey. The former secretary of state claimed Trump would scam voters in the November election in the same way Trump University took advantage of its students.

“'Trump and his employees took advantage of vulnerable Americans, encouraging them to max out their credit cards, empty their retirement savings, destroy their financial futures – all while making promises they knew were false from the beginning,'  Clinton said.   'This is just more evidence that Donald Trump himself is a fraud. He is trying to scam America the way he scammed all those people at Trump U.'”

*   *   *

Remember back last fall when someone brought this up in a debate?   Trump brushed it off as "just a civil suit.   I could settle it easily, but I don't want to settle."   In fact, it is a $40 million, class action suit involving about 5,000 former students who claim not to have gotten what they were promised.  The Dallas Morning News reports that a similar lawsuit against Trump was proposed in Texas but was killed for political reasons by then Attorney General Greg Abbot, who is now the Republican governor. 

The documents released by the judge this week contain damaging evidence of the preditory tactics.  This prompted Trump to attack the judge's integrity and qualifications at a press conference.   He called the judge "a hater.  A Trump hater and 'very unfair.'"   This is after the judge had earlier shown deference to Trump by agreeing to delay the trial until after the election.    Then on top of it all, Trump attempted to smear the judge by claiming that he "is a Mexican."   In fact, he was born in the U.S.

Some lawyers are saying that there are grounds for holding him in contempt of court for these remarks.      Eric Schneiderman is no light-weight.   He has won judgments against some of the heavy-weights in the financial world.   Trump also lashed out at him, calling him "a political hack."    This could blow up in his orange face if he doesn't tone it down.

Ralph