Lawyers representing President-elect Donald Trump want to postpone an upcoming Trump University fraud trial until after he is inaugurated.
The suit, which was scheduled to be heard by Judge Gonzalo Curiel on Nov. 28, would be the first such trial for a president-elect, and Trump’s attorneys said Thursday that it would put too much on Trump’s plate, given his already mammoth task of assembling an administration by inauguration day.
“We’re in uncharted territory,” Trump attorney Daniel Petrocelli said, according to the Washington Post, later citing “very difficult circumstance for a sitting president—more so, I would say, for a president-elect.”
“This has been a gut-wrenching campaign, as everybody knows, and the nation is just beginning the long healing process,” he told reporters later, according to the same report. “And I think the last thing we need right now is to have a trial about events that occurred six years ago or seven years ago, in which Mr. Trump—President-elect Trump—is a personal defendant in matters completely unrelated to the momentous obligations that he now needs to deal with.”
The Post reports Trump’s lawyers want the trail postponed until February or March of 2017.
The trial is one of two class-action suits Trump faces over his real estate seminars. In both cases, former students allege they paid up to $35,000 for courses which did not have the instructors nor meet the depth they were promised. USA Today reports Trump faces as many as 75 pending lawsuits as he assumes the presidency.
When Judge Curiel urged both sides to consider, “given all else that’s involved,” settling the case out of court—a resolution which flies in the face of Trump’s repeated, if incorrect, claim that he never settles cases—Petrocelli showed interest.
“I can tell you right now: I am all ears, your honor,” he said of the suggestion, according to the Post.
Earlier on Thursday, Curiel said he would allow statements made by Trump during the presidential campaign in the trial.
Trump addressed the Trump University fraud case frequently in stump speeches, and even went after Judge Curiel himself, saying he would be unable to preside over the case fairly because his parents immigrated to the United States from Mexico.
…Trump’s attorneys said Thursday that it would put too much on Trump’s plate, given his already mammoth task of assembling an administration by inauguration day.
Yeah, and when he is prez he will have nothing to do, plenty of free time. Working on settling this so no trial perhaps?
@littlegirlblue,@circusmax, @nicci, @susanintheoc, @sysprog, @esva, @cologirl, @inversion, @debg, @fuashcroft, @dont, @lio, @renatastar, @msm - If Trump’s attorneys do not settle they will move to delay trial until after he is president. This from Dan Abram’s law site:
"But about Trump University, and other cases that Trump is facing that are already in motion? Would they keep going, or be put on hold for the duration of his term in office? Professor Edward Foley, director of Election Law @ Mortiz at The Ohio State University’s Moritz College of Law, said that situations like this could be decided by courts on a case by case basis. On the one hand, “the judiciary will want to look to the principle that no one is above the law,” Foley said. On the other hand, there is “the risk of a civil lawsuit being a genuine distraction such that it outweighs the interests of the litigants in the civil suit.” The judiciary would exercise their discretion, he said, given that “the President is the chief executive of the nation,” and shouldn’t have to face the distractions of litigation unless it’s truly necessary.
So Trump would technically not be immune from any of his pending civil cases while in office, but the judges would have to determine whether it’s worth going forward right away or waiting until his term is over. And many experts believe they may end up being delayed."
Amazing. They have no shame.
If he gets his way, the trial will be delayed until the fuckingtrumpbagofshit administration is rotting in the grave of what used to be America
So, no
In February they will want the trial postponed for ‘national security reasons’ the exact nature of which they will not be a liberty to disclose.
I hope the Judge says ‘no’.
Trump is the master of trial delay and forcing costs onto his opponent.