Trump University Scandal Deepens: New York Attorney General Blasts Donald Trump For ‘Racial Demagoguery’
Although he largely sidestepped discussion of the controversy surrounding his infamous Trump University project during this week’s GOP debate, Donald Trump is now hitting back against allegations that he defrauded scores of former students. According to a report by Mediaite, the real estate mogul talked about the flap at length during a campaign stop in Arkansas on Saturday, alleging that the judge in one of the cases against him has acted unfairly. As with a number of other issues raised in the campaign, the outspoken Republican candidate is bringing race and ethnicity into the discussion, as well.
“The judge should have thrown the case out on summary judgment,” Trump said. “But because it was me and because there’s a hostility toward me by the judge, tremendous hostility, beyond belief — I believe he happens to be Spanish, which is fine, he’s Hispanic, which is fine, and we haven’t asked for a recusal, which we may do, but we have a judge who’s very hostile.”
Mediaite noted that Trump was likely referring to U.S. District Judge Gonzalo Curiel. A report by the San Diego Tribune noted that Curiel was appointed to the bench by President Obama in 2012. He serves as a judge for California’s Southern District, as noted by informational source, Plain Site.
As previously reported by Inquisitr, Donald Trump currently faces lawsuits in California and New York over his Trump University endeavor. The billionaire is accused of misleading thousands of “students” who allege that the materials, seminars, and mentoring programs they paid for ultimately provided little-to-no value.
Conservative outlet Brietbart advised that Donald Trump also took a swipe at New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman, who is handling the East Coast lawsuit regarding Trump University. Trump suggested that Schneiderman has a conflict of interest in the matter, also claiming that the attorney general is “not respected in New York” and that he is “doing a terrible job!”
For his part, Eric Schneiderman touched briefly upon the hullabaloo, posting a statement via Twitter in which he blasted the GOP frontrunner for his stump speech comments.
“I will not engage in a debate about ongoing litigation,” Schneiderman said. “But there is no place in this process for racial demagoguery directed at respected members of the judiciary. The state Supreme Court has already ruled that Trump University operated illegally in New York as an unlicensed education institution, and we look forward to prevailing on the rest of our claims as the legal process moves forward.”
A report by CNN, which was later reposted by KOIN, notes that Schneiderman filed his suit against Trump in 2013 and has described the endeavor as “a classic bait-and-switch” scheme.” Trump University reportedly generated over $40 million.
Marco Rubio, who is now widely considered to be Donald Trump’s chief competition for the Republican nomination, has seized upon the mounting controversy by promising that he will share firsthand accounts of former customers of Trump University “very soon.” According to Fox News, Rubio told an audience in Georgia that he has been hearing “non-stop” from dissatisfied “students” of Trump University who ostensibly want to tell voters about their negative experiences with the now-defunct Donald Trump endeavor.
[Photo by Tom Pennington/Getty Images]
