Trump settles Trump University lawsuits for $25 million

President-elect Donald Trump has agreed to pay $25 million to former students of his for-profit Trump University as part of a settlement that
resolves three outstanding lawsuits against him, including one in which he was set to testify in a trial that was due to begin in San Diego later this month.
As part of the agreement, Trump will pay $1 million in penalties to the state of New York for violating state education laws by labeling his nonaccredited
school a “university” without registering as an educational institution with New York state officials, according to New York Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman, who announced the
settlement Friday afternoon. The deal includes no admission of wrongdoing.
“In 2013, my office sued Donald Trump for swindling thousands of innocent Americans out of millions of dollars through a scheme known as Trump University,” Schneiderman said in a
statement. “Donald Trump fought us every step of the way, filing baseless charges and fruitless appeals and refusing to settle for even modest
amounts of compensation for the victims of his phony university. Today, that all changes. Today’s $25 million settlement agreement is a stunning
reversal by Donald Trump and a major victory for the over 6,000 victims of his fraudulent university.”
The announcement came after days of frantic negotiations among the parties that began last week, after Trump was elected president and U.S. Judge Gonzalo Curiel — the U.S.-born judge whom Trump repeatedly attacked during the campaign as biased due to his “Mexican” heritage — began prodding the parties to resolve the cases. The first
of three lawsuits was scheduled to start in Curiel’s courtroom Nov. 28. Trump’s lawyers had filed motions urging that the trial date be postponed, arguing that their client was too busy assembling
his new administration to testify in a civil trial.
Trump attorney Daniel Petrocelli said Friday that Trump was determined to resolve the controversy.
“There’s an old saying that we lawyers have that nobody is happy in a settlement. But I don’t think this is true, this is a settlement we can all be happy
about and look forward to putting this behind us and moving forward. President-elect Trump is keenly interested in tackling the problems of our country and moving forward.”
The negotiations were a three-sided affair, involving Trump’s lawyers in Los Angeles, plaintiff’s lawyers in San Diego and Schneiderman’s office in New York, according to a source familiar with the talks. During the negotiations, Trump — who vowed during the campaign to never settle the cases — balked at the
wording of the proposed agreement and refused to accept that he was paying “penalties” for violating state laws, according to the source. Friday’s
announcement by Schneiderman used the word “penalties” for Trump’s alleged violation of state education laws. The final terms of the agreement, however, were presented to Curiel on Friday
afternoon. Curiel must still approve the settlement for it to take effect. Preliminary approval could
come in as few as 30 days, though final approval may take 30 to 60 days beyond that.