Trump University Documents Ordered Unsealed

Hours after a Federal Judge in San Diego was attacked by Donald Trump as being a “hater of Donald Trump,” he ordered hundreds of pages of documents in a lawsuit against Trump to be unsealed.

It’s not known if Federal Judge Gonzalo Curiel was aware of Trump’s 12-minute tirade when he issued the order, which - given its length - had likely been drafted earlier.

The judge’s order came in response to a request from The Washington Post to unseal the documents, which include the “playbooks” Trump University officials used to market the company.

The newspaper argued that given Trump’s status and the fact he has campaigned on his business success, there are compelling reasons to unseal the documents in the lawsuit.

Trump University is the defendant in three suits - one by the New York State Attorney General - and two class action suits in San Diego where students charge that they were defrauded.

They charge the university made false claims about how much experience teachers would have and that they had been handpicked by Trump.

In a deposition, Trump acknowledged that he did not handpick the live instructors.

One of the trials is scheduled to begin in San Diego in November.

“The trial is going to take place sometime in November,” Trump said during his tirade on Friday. “There should be no trial. This should have been dismissed on summary judgment easily. “Everybody says it, but I have a judge who is a hater of Donald Trump, a hater. He’s a hater. His name is Gonzalo Curiel.

“The judge, who happens to be, we believe, Mexican, which is great, I think that’s fine.”

Judge Curiel, whose parents are Mexican, was born in Indiana.

He spent 17 years as an assistant United States Attorney in the Southern District of California, which includes San Diego. There, he prosecutors many people who smuggled drugs across the United States Border with Mexico.
Friday was not the first time that Trump had attacked the judge.

At a rally in March, Trump said Judge Curiel is “very hostile.

“The judge should have thrown the case out on summary judgment but because it was me and because there’s a hostility towards 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 recusal, which we may do, but we have a judge who’s very hostile.”

In his order Friday, Judge Curiel cited Trump’s declarations about him.

“Defendant (has) become the front-runner for the Republican nomination in the 2016 presidential race and has placed the integrity of these court proceedings at issue,” Judge Curiel wrote.

Trump’s lawyers had argued that the information - much of which has already been published in some form, the judge noted - must be kept secret because it contained trade secrets that would harm the company if it returned at some point.

“Defendant argues that the information retains commercial value because ‘although TU stopped enrolling new students in 2010,’ it ‘may do’ so again,” Judge Curiel wrote. “That assertion, however, appears to be wholly speculative.

“Defendant has thus failed to articulate compelling reasons for the material to remain sealed.”

The judge ordered the documents be turned over in early June, giving lawyers time to redact personal information such as telephone numbers.