Newly released Trump testimony on Trump University could trigger video deposition battle
Lawyers suing presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump for fraud over his Trump University real estate seminar program are making public more of his testimony in the case, including how he batted away questions about whether instructors in the program intentionally lied to students.
Attorneys pressing a pair of class-action suits against Trump also made a move Friday that could increase the political pain for the GOP presidential candidate: they said they’re planning to file with a federal court in San Diego excerpts of videos of Trump’s two recent depositions in the case.
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That’s likely to trigger a battle over whether the videos should be made public. With likely Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton blasting Trump and his self-styled university as a “fraud,” it seems a certainty that video of Trump being grilled about the venture will feature in TV attack ads if the recordings are released.
The newly-filed transcripts of portions of Trump's testimony provide more fodder for Clinton and others charging that Trump University took advantage of people in financial straits looking to make quick cash.
Asked at a December deposition whether Trump University was designed to capitalize on people’s “fantasies” about making a fortune in real estate, the veteran developer said it was just common sense to paint a rosy scenario.
“I believe in playing to people's desires, where they want to rent an apartment or buy an apartment or rent office space. I've never seen anybody say, gee, my building's doing terribly, why don't you rent an apartment,” Trump said.
Pressed on the “fantasy” issue, Trump conceded he didn’t have a problem with those kinds of sales techniques.
“I see nothing wrong,” the real estate mogul said. “Sure, you want to -- life, you want to -- you want to play to something that's positive and beautiful.· And you can use the word ‘fantasy’ if you want. Or I could use the word ‘fantasy,’ but, sure, you want to play to something that's beautiful and good and successful.”
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