Posted on 07/04/2015 10:02:46 AM PDT by nickcarraway
Donald Trump has to put his mouth where his money is.
The Republican presidential candidate will have to answer questions under oath about his net worth - and about how much money he raked in from his now-defunct Trump University, a California federal court judge ruled this week.
Lawyers for The Donald had contended he didn't have to answer questions in a civil racketeering lawsuit about how much money he made from the "school" because he'd already acknowledged under oath that he had "significant involvement with both the operations and overall business strategy of Trump University."
In a ruling Tuesday, San Diego Federal Court Judge Gonzalo Curiel disagreed.
“Plaintiff argues that a showing that Trump invested millions of dollars in a fraudulent scheme and took millions more in profits from the scheme is relevant to Trump's motive or intent to defraud,” the judge wrote.
Therefore, “financial evidence showing Trump's motive is relevant and discoverable.”
A magistrate judge had ruled earlier in the case that Trump didn't have to answer questions about his net worth because that information was Google-able - a decision Curiel overruled.
“Publicly available figures of Trump's wealth have been the subject of wild speculation and range anywhere from $4 to $9 billion. Simply stated, plaintiffs are entitled to answers made under penalty of perjury,” the judge found.
He ordered Trump and his lawyers to answer the financial questions brought by plaintiff Art Cohen's lawyers.
Trump lawyer Jeffrey Goldman told the Daily News “we strongly disagree with the judge’s ruling,” but that the real estate baron would be deposed before Aug. 10.
Cohen's class-action suit contends he and thousands of others fell prey to a “fraudulent scheme nationwide to sell real estate seminars” by Trump.
The victims were “misled” into believing “they would learn Donald Trump's real estate secrets through him and his handpicked professors at his elite 'University.' The misleading nature of the enterprise is embodied by its very name" because it delivered “neither Donald Trump nor a University,” the suit said. Cohen said he was duped out of $36,000.
Trump denies the school was a scam. In court papers, his lawyers said Cohen “enjoyed and gained a benefit from Trump University's programs, and represented that he was pleased with Trump University's programs.”
Goldman said that in Cohen’s deposition, he said he thought the program “was well worth his money” before he heard about legal actions against the school.
In October, Trump said he still believes he’ll beat the $40 million New York action.
“As soon as this case is over, we will consider re-opening the school to all our students and hire back the teachers and others, thereby creating lots of jobs for New York,” Trump said then.
At his presidential announcement last month, Trump said his net worth was over $9 billion, but some financial experts have questioned that figure. Forbes estimated his net worth to be $4 billion.
Trump should have run as a DemocRAT so he wouldn’t have to put up with this crap from these dumbass “judges”.
Looks like they’ve zeroed in on Trump’s version of the “Bill, Hillary and Chelsea Foundation.”
I couldn’t agree more.
He also had a couple of multi-level marketing scams.
He also had a couple of multi-level marketing scams.
So did this guy get “duped out of $36K” by giving it to Trump? Or did he lose it in a real estate deal? Either way, that $40 million dollar lawsuit ought to recompense him for his time and trouble, huh?
Meanwhile, Hillary Clinton when asked about her dealings with the Clinton Global Crime Initiative said “I don’t have to tell you jack shit about that.”
That’s what late night TV ads are for.....identifying gullible suckers.
Yes, I’m sure Trump was manning the phones, meeting people, and running this whole operation while letting his other interests languish.
Even guys like Trump get gamed at times. Someone comes in and sells them on a project and the next thing you know their name is mired in a scandal.
Never mind that Trump may have had some decent goals in mind when the thing started up.
Was it intended to be a scam from the get-go? I doubt it. Trump has too much going on the sully his name intentionally with a scam.
Don’t let that stop anyone from trying to prove what a bad guy he is.
Im no fan or supporter of donald trump, but the ny daily news has a true visceral hatred for him. Literally not a day goes by that they arent running a negative story about him and when there is no negative trump news to report, they concoct a few editorial columns to trounce on him to make up for it.
Hillary and obama on the other hand get treated with kid gloves and a whole bunch of whitewashing.
Odd timing this....
Allow me a few predictions about Trump’s worth, his businesses, and so on, that will play out over the next months.
A: The media, liberal and GOP-e media, will be out for blood to cast everything in the worst possible light. No doubt, already starting....
B: However, his sycophants are going to have some very embarrassing days as some of this comes to light - personal wealth while allowing corporations to go bankrupt - crony deals - etc - things that are anti conservative in nature.
C: some of these revelations, which will be fine as part of doing business, some of his actions and strategies to protect himself do not support the idea that he’s a genius who can turn the whole country around due to his business wizardry.
We’ll see how it plays out....but I’m fairly confident of these three projections...
LoL Nick you got not much here.
Trump easily could counter how academia is bilking college students by putting them into 10 to 100 thousand dollars in debt. Or Trump could highlight Hillary and Billy’s Foundation pay me scam.
Trump has a target rich environment to pick from with all the known sleaze against his enemies. The limit goes beyond the known sky.
This case has been going on for years, well before his candidacy.
Yeah
This lawsuit has been going on since 2013, but the federal judge is Mexican-American and a 2012 Obama nominee.
Wow it's such 'a scam' he plans to reopen it. LoL.
How can an intelligent man get himself into such a scam? Oh I see it now after some thinking. The guy wanted his money back and then some more and he connived with some low level judge to set the stage for action. This shows me that there are too many judges, many quickie political hacks, who are nothing more than societal dregs themselves.
A Mexican-American Obama clone at just this moment in time.
Best to use the word “Judge” in this instance instead of “Justice”.
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