During his presidential campaign, Trump publicly stated that he had no intention to settle the case since he was confident he would have prevailed at trial. However, the litigation would have gone on for a long time, causing “significant distractions” to the newly-elected President, as his lead defense attorney Daniel M. Petrocelli explained. By settling the case, Trump will not need to testify in court during the presidential transition period as he was required to.
The Trump University litigation consolidated two federal class actions which were set to be heard in California, with a separate lawsuit filed by the New York attorney general Eric T. Schneiderman. According to the plaintiffs’ claims, students were deceived into a large fraudulent scheme that cheated them into paying up to $35,000 in tuition for programs held by unqualified teachers through high-pressure sales tactics.
From 2004 to 2010, the Trump University offered courses in entrepreneurship and real estate through several introductory seminars across the country. The programs were widely advertised as a quick way to learn Mr. Trump’s purported secrets by paying expensive fees. However, the New York attorney alleged that most of the advertised claims were fraudulent, and found that the University violated state education laws since it failed to meet accreditation standards.
To defend Trump University’s legitimacy, a website called 98percentapproval.com published thousands of student evaluations whose approval rates allegedly reached an outstanding 98 percent. According to a previous report published in the New York Times, however, many students were put under high pressure to give positive reviews, and at least 3,000 of them were written by guests who just attended a single class for free.
Public documents revealed during the litigation showed Mr. Trump’s overstatements about his role in the graduation courses. During his previous testimony, he acknowledged that he never handpicked the instructors, although he never admitted fault regarding the claims that students were actively scammed.
