Even though Donald Trump has settled many of his hundreds of lawsuits, he spent his time on the campaign trail stating that he ‘never settles.’ It looks like the public is seeing that he does settle which could be a good thing for those afraid of him being too stubborn.
President-elect Donald Trump has agreed to a $25 million settlement to resolve three lawsuits over Trump University, his former school for real estate investors.
The deal announced Friday by New York state Attorney General Eric Schneiderman would settle a lawsuit he filed three years ago, plus two class-action lawsuits in California filed on behalf of former Trump University students.
The suits allege that Trump University failed to deliver on its promise to teach success in real estate through programs that cost up to $35,000. They say the program misled students by calling itself a university when it wasn’t an accredited school and by saying that Trump “hand-picked” instructors.
Messages left with several of Trump’s attorneys and a spokeswoman were not returned Friday.
Trump has strongly denied the allegations and said during the campaign that he wouldn’t settle. He told supporters at a May rally that he would come to San Diego to testify after winning the presidency.
“I could have settled this case numerous times, but I don’t want to settle cases when we’re right. I don’t believe in it. And when you start settling cases, you know what happens? Everybody sues you because you get known as a settler. One thing about me, I am not known as a settler,” Trump said at the time.
The deal does not require Trump to acknowledge wrongdoing.
Schneiderman said the $25 million to be paid by Trump or one of his business entities includes restitution for victims and $1 million in penalties to the state.
“Donald Trump fought us every step of the way, filing baseless charges and fruitless appeals and refusing to settle for even modest amounts of compensation for the victims of his phony university. Today, that all changes,” Schneiderman said in a statement. He called the settlement “a stunning reversal by Donald Trump and a major victory for the over 6,000 victims of his fraudulent university.”
A federal judge in California had been set Friday to consider arguments on Trump’s latest request to delay a trial until after Trump’s inauguration on Jan. 20.
Trump’s attorneys said in a court filing last week that preparations for the White House were “critical and all-consuming.” Six months ago, when they unsuccessfully sought a delay until after Inauguration Day, lead attorney Daniel Petrocelli said the period between the election and swearing-in is extremely hectic for a president-elect but that it was preferable to a trial during the campaign.
“The task is momentous, exceedingly complex, and requires careful coordination involving the respective staffs and teams of both President (Barack) Obama and President-Elect Trump,” Trump’s attorneys wrote. “In fewer than three months, the President-Elect must be prepared to manage 15 executive departments, more than 100 federal agencies, 2 million civilian employees, and a budget of almost $4 trillion.”
Trump’s attorneys also raised the prospect of having the president-elect testify by video recording before the trial begins in the class-action lawsuit on Nov. 28.
Kanye West says he didn’t vote in the presidential election, but if he had, he would have voted for Republican President-elect Donald Trump.
Fan video shows West making the comments on stage at a concert in San Jose, California, on Thursday night. The announcement was mostly met with boos from the crowd. West told fans that “sometimes you might have to not get your way in order to really understand what to do in the future to be able to get your way.”
West has a long history of being politically outspoken.
In 2005, he famously slammed then-President George W. Bush, saying the Republican didn’t “care about black people.”
West has already announced his plan to run for president in 2020.
Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders called on Donald Trump to apologize for his inflammatory rhetoric during the presidential campaign and asked him to cut ties with campaign CEO Steve Bannon.
The president-elect named Bannon as a top White House adviser on Monday, sparking an outcry from Democrats who blasted the conservative media CEO as peddling conspiracy theories and white supremacy.
Sanders, who lost the Democratic presidential nomination to Hillary Clinton, says his office received “many, many” calls asking Trump to withdraw the appointment.
“What we are seeing all over this country is extraordinary fear,” Sanders said at a breakfast sponsored by the Christian Science Monitor. He said Trump should try to “make the American people feel comfortable” by rescinding Bannon’s nomination.
The self-identified independent also said there may be opportunities for Democrats to work with Trump on some of his campaign promises including curbing high pharmaceutical drug pieces, renegotiating trade deals, cutting the influence of Wall Street and other ideas that will “improve life for working people.”
“He said a whole lot of things. Was he serious or were these just campaign slogans?” he said. “We will hold him accountable.”
Sanders told reporters that he hasn’t spoken personally to Clinton but believes she has an important role to play in the party’s future. She made her first public remarks since her concession speech in Washington on Wednesday evening, urging her supporters to “stay engaged” in political activism.
Democrats, he said, must do some “soul searching” in the coming months. He’s backing Minnesota Rep. Keith Ellison head up the Democratic National Committee, arguing the first Muslim-American member of Congress could bring some fresh ideas to the party.
“It is time for the Democratic party to reassess what it stands for and where it wants to go,” he said.