Comments President-elect Donald Trump made while on the campaign trail could be used in the upcoming trial over Trump University.
U.S District Judge Gonzalo Curiel denied Trump lawyers’ request for a broad ban excluding all comments he made during the campaign, which they had said were irrelevant to the matter of whether Trump had deliberately mislead students.
“Defendants have not identified specific evidence that they wish to exclude,” Curiel said in his tentative decision, according to Crain’s. “Accordingly, the court declines to issue a blanket ruling at this time.”
While Trump’s lawyers did not identify any specific comments he wanted barred from the trial, the president-elect drew criticism for saying that earlier rulings by Curiel – who was born in Indiana to Mexican immigrants – were retribution for the real estate mogul’s plan to build a wall at the border between the United States and Mexico.
The trial in the class-action suit brought on behalf of former students in California, Florida and New York is set for Nov. 28. The suit claims the now-defunct university scammed students into paying as much as $35,000 for real estate seminars.
Trump started the school in 2005, touting it as a way to learn his strategies for business success.
On Wednesday, The Real Deal asked some of the real estate industry’s leading players how they felt about Trump’s surprise election victory. [Crain’s] – Rich Bockmann