A federal judge on Monday shot down another attempt by Donald Trump to stop a group of former students from suing his former real estate school.
Trump had argued that the fraud lawsuit shouldn’t have class action status because one of the students in the case, Sonny Low, didn’t actually care whether Trump University was accredited. But U.S. District Judge Gonzalo Curiel ruled that Trump’s attorneys were using a limited interpretation of Low’s statement that accreditation “was not even a consideration for me,” and that he “went there because it was Trump University, that he created.”
Other portions of Low’s deposition, Curiel said, showed that he believed the university was legitimate, Bloomberg reported.
Thousands of former students from Florida, New York and California claim the university falsely promised to reveal the real estate tycoon’s investment secrets in exchange for tens of thousands of dollars in tuition. In May, Curiel ruled that the jury trial for the lawsuit wouldn’t happen until after the Nov. 8 election. The trial is scheduled to begin Nov. 28.
The presidential nominee faces two other related lawsuits: another class action lawsuit in San Diego that accuses him of racketeering and a $40 million lawsuit filed by New York State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman. [Bloomberg] — Kathryn Brenzel