BAD TIMING

Trump Loses Bid to Stop Fraud Lawsuit

Judge questions whether he knowingly defrauded Trump U students.

A U.S. judge has declined Donald Trump’s request to throw out a lawsuit that accuses the Republican presidential nominee of defrauding students of his Trump University, one of three cases involving the defunct institution. In a ruling Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Gonzalo Curiel allowed the trial to go ahead. The lawsuit, filed in 2013 by students who say they were defrauded, alleges that Trump knowingly cheated people who had paid as much as $35,000 out of the education they were promised. While the school claimed to offer real-estate instructors handpicked by Trump, Curiel said there was evidence that Trump had nothing to do with the selection of Trump University instructors, and he questioned whether the real-estate mogul knowingly deceived students. Trump’s defense team has argued that the promises of handpicked instructors were just sales “puffery.” Trump’s camp fought hard to have the lawsuit dismissed and relevant video excerpts of Trump banned, arguing that the materials could be exploited by the media during the presidential race. While Curiel has allowed the lawsuit to go ahead, he rejected a request by the plaintiffs to make the video materials public.