Donald Trump's namesake real estate school was a "bait-and-switch scheme," New York Attorney Gen. Eric Schneiderman, who brought the fraud lawsuit against Trump University, said Friday while describing the evidence as "pretty straightforward."
"If you tell people we're going to teach you Donald Trump's secrets, and he never had any part in writing the curriculum, that's fraud," Schneiderman told
CNN's Chris Cuomo on the network's "New Day" program. "He did ads saying, 'My hand-picked instructors will teach you my personal secrets. You just copy what I did and get rich.'"
Schneiderman said the lawsuit's evidence makes it clear that Trump neither hired instructors or created the program's curriculum, but thousands of students paid millions to take classes at the now-defunct school.
"This is the equivalent of putting up a sign that says Trump Hospital, when it's not, and the people in it aren't nurses and doctors," he told Cuomo.
Schneiderman emphasized that the case is civil, not criminal, but Trump could face millions in fines.
Meanwhile, Trump claims Schneiderman is on the case after getting a campaign contribution from attorneys representing the students in a civil lawsuit and that the attorney general filed suit after meeting with President Barack Obama, both of which Schneiderman denies.
He did admit to receiving a $10,000 donation back in 2010 from an attorney at one large law firm that was seeking claims on Trump, but that the GOP presidential frontrunner contributed $12,500 himself to Schneiderman's campaign.
"Obviously, I'm not motivated by money since he gave me more money than anyone even tangentially related to the other side," he told Cuomo.
Further, Schneiderman pointed out that he filed the case against Trump in 2013, long before he knew that the real estate mogul would run for president.
Trump on Thursday flatly rejected settling the case, telling
MSNBC's "Morning Joe" program that he never settles lawsuits out of courts, because he would face cases all the time if he did.
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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