Trump Agrees to $25 Million Settlement in Trump University Fraud Cases
President-elect Donald Trump, who has repeatedly bragged that he never settles lawsuits despite a long history of doing so, has agreed to a $25 million settlement to end the fraud cases pending against his defunct real estate seminar program, Trump University.
The settlement eliminates the possibility that Trump will be called to testify in court in the midst of his presidential transition. It ends three separate lawsuits that made claims against Trump University, including a California class action case that was scheduled to go to trial later this month, as well as a second suit in that state and an action filed by New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman.
In a statement, Trump Organization General Counsel Alan Garten said he thought Trump would have prevailed at trial but settled so Trump could “devote his full attention to the important issues facing our great nation” during his presidential transition.
Schneiderman, a Democrat who had faced harsh attacks from Trump since filing the 2013 suit, said in a statement that his office had sued Trump for “swindling thousands of innocent Americans out of millions of dollars” and that the settlement had come despite significant resistance from Trump for years.
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