Trump: I'll Win Trump University Lawsuit

Donald Trump promised he'll win a lawsuit alleging his namesake real-estate school swindled students after a federal judge ordered documents unsealed in a related racketeering case.

The presumptive Republican nominee for president said at a news conference in New York Tuesday that U.S. District Court Judge Gonzalo Curiel in San Diego, who is overseeing both cases in California, "has been very unfair" and has "not done a good job."

"I could settle that case, I could have settled it," Trump said. "I just chose not to. In fact when I ran they said, 'Why don't you settle that case?' I don't want to settle the case. Because you know what? Because I'm a man of principle, and most of the people who took those courses have letters saying they thought it was great, essentially."

New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman, who sued Trump claiming the university was a fraud, said different judges in California and New York all agreed the lawsuits should be allowed to continue.

“He keeps saying it's an easy case to win, but he keeps losing,” Schneiderman said on CNN Tuesday.

Former students from California, Florida and New York accuse Trump and his now-defunct, for-profit school of making empty promises, including that they would be taught Trump's investing secrets, to get them to pay as much as $35,000 for “elite” real-estate seminars.

California Suits

Some of the students filed a fraud lawsuit in San Diego in 2010. That was followed by a racketeering lawsuit in 2013.

Curiel earlier this month ruled that a jury trial in the fraud case will begin 20 days after the Nov. 8 presidential election. In the racketeering suit, the judge on Friday ordered more than 150 pages of documents from exhibits in the case unsealed, including "playbooks" that contain rules and procedures for Trump University events, scripts for engaging with customers and employee policies and procedures.

The fraud case is Low v. Trump University LLC, 10-cv-00940. The racketeering case is Cohen v. Trump, 13-cv-02519. Both in U.S. District Court, Southern District of California (San Diego).