Board Drops Trump Complaint Against Attorney General Over Univ. Investigation

FILE - In this Saturday, Aug. 29, 2015, file photo, Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump answers questions from reporters at the National Federation of Republican Assemblies in Nashville, Tenn. New York's e... FILE - In this Saturday, Aug. 29, 2015, file photo, Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump answers questions from reporters at the National Federation of Republican Assemblies in Nashville, Tenn. New York's ethics commission has dropped Donald Trump's complaint that the state attorney general engaged in misconduct during an investigation of the former Trump University. (AP Photo/Mark Humphrey, File) MORE LESS
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ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) — New York’s ethics commission has dropped Donald Trump’s complaint that the state attorneygeneral engaged in misconduct during an investigation of the former Trump University.

Trump’s December 2013 complaint accused Democratic Attorney General Eric Schneiderman of soliciting campaign donations from Trump’s daughter even as his office was investigating the mogul’s business school.

Schneiderman had sued Trump four months earlier, seeking $40 million. He alleged that the school violated consumer protection law, engaged in fraud and that most students never got their promised apprenticeships. The lawsuit is still pending.

Trump, currently seeking the Republican presidential nomination, said most student surveys rated the program as excellent.

His attorney, Alan Garten, on Monday called the decision by the Joint Commission on Public Ethics “a joke” and said they’re considering an appeal.

“The decision by the commission not to proceed demonstrates that it’s just a facade,” he said.

Commission Chairman Daniel Horwitz, in a letter to Schneiderman’s attorney this month, wrote that based on its review of material presented and available information, it wasn’t taking any further action on the complaint.

In a letter sent a few days later to Trump’s daughter Ivanka, Schneiderman campaign compliance director Lauren Schleyer-Hinchey wrote that the campaign was not keeping her $500 donation check written in late 2012, which became the basis of the complaint. She noted that Ivanka Trump had then indicated that neither she nor any entity she owned or controlled had any matters pending with the attorney general’s office, contradicted by the affidavit she filed later in connection with her father’s complaint.

Garten wrote back to Schleyer-Hinchey, saying Ivanka Trump’s disclosure statement was true, that neither she nor any entity she owned or controlled has ever had matters before the attorney general’s office, and Schneiderman’s campaign had actively solicited her donation.

Garten said Monday that Trump University, which was renamed the Trump Entrepreneur Initiative, hasn’t been taking new students.

Copyright 2015 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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Notable Replies

  1. But IOKIYAR. The MSM will ignore the actual fraud perpetrated by a Republican candidate for President and, instead, rehash the Hillary email nothing burger.

    BENGHAZIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII!!!

  2. “Garten said Monday that Trump University, which was renamed the Trump Entrepreneur Initiative, hasn’t been taking new students.”"

    Kinda says a lot about the Primadonaldo…

  3. The DT is known for his love of suing people…which makes one wonder who he is going to sue if he became POTUS. His own personal DOJ? Firing of A/G’s …haven’t we already seen this movie.

  4. Who in their right mind would be enrolled in “Rump University” (or, rather, which was renamed the “Trump Entrepreneur Initiative”)???

  5. I’d like to see an in depth investigation of Trump’s mob connections. Where is an Edward R. Murrow clone when we need him?

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