Eric Schneiderman says presumptive Republican nominee ‘bilked people’ and that his prosecution team has video evidence of fraudulent statements

Donald Trump “personally pocketed $5m” from his Trump University “scam”, New York’s attorney general said on Thursday.



“This never was a university. The fraud started with the name of the organization,” said Eric Schneiderman, who is suing Trump University in New York over allegations of fraud. “It really was a fraud from beginning to end.”

Schneiderman said Trump “bilked people out of millions of dollars” and promised to “make sure he pays it back”.

“Thousands of people paid millions of dollars believing that he would tell them his real estate secrets,” Schneiderman told ABC News’s Good Morning America. “And we know from his own sworn testimony … that he didn’t write the curriculum – none of them were his secrets.”

Schneiderman said he will demand that the presumptive Republican presidential nominee takes the stand when his case comes to court, by which time the real estate magnate could be president. “He doesn’t have immunity from civil fraud trials,” he said.

Trump is currently facing three class action lawsuits against Trump University over allegations of fraud. Trump denies all the charges and has vowed to fight them all in court.

The judge in one of two class action lawsuits in California this week published damning testimony from former Trump University workers. They described the university as “a facade, a total lie” and a “fraudulent scheme” that “preyed upon the elderly and uneducated to separate them from their money”.

Judge Gonzalo Curiel, who has faced sustained personal attacks from Trump, also published Trump University “playbooks” that instructed staff in how to aggressively sell courses costing up to $34,995 to prospective clients.

Schneiderman also appeared on MSNBC’s Morning Joe, where he described Trump University as a “straight-up fraud”. “It’s like selling people something you say is a Mercedes and it turns out to be a Volkswagen,” he said. “And even if some people say, ‘Well actually, I kind of like the Volkswagen,’ it’s still fraud because it’s not a Mercedes. This was not a university.”

Schneiderman said his prosecution team had videos of Trump that would clearly show the businessman making “false promises”, and that documents would prove that people described as real estate experts and Trump’s right-hand men were no such thing.

“Donald Trump’s sole role was in marketing. He was the pitchman,” Schneiderman said. “He was clearly in charge of pitching his scam university to people.”

Trump fought back on Wednesday, releasing a new campaign advert showing three former students – Kent Moyer, Casey Hoban and Michelle Gunn – praising Trump University. “The students on this video are representative of the many students who were overwhelmingly satisfied with Trump University,” the Trump campaign said. “Rather than listen to the media spin, listen to the hard-working students who can attest first-hand to the truth about Trump University.”

Moyer, who is described in the video as an entrepreneur and founder of World Protection Group, said the courses he took were “outstanding”. “They were excellent in terms of the quality of the content.

“You have to really have a loyalty to Trump University. They gave me some of the basic business skills to start my business and I will never forget that.”

None of the students featured in the testimonial video appear to be currently working in real estate. Moyer works as motivational speaker; his website describes him as a life coach who can turn “business dreams into action”. Previously he was a Playboy Mansion bodyguard.

Gunn, who said she made back her Trump University tuition fees on her very first real estate deal, appears to also be a motivational speaker and has previously starred in video endorsements for LA performance coach Steven Memel.

Trump’s campaign video does not mention that Trump endorsed a self-help book by Gunn’s son, Houston, titled Schooled for Success: How I Plan to Graduate from High School a Millionaire. His website shows a photo of Gunn posing with Trump at his Trump Tower office.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Trump with Houston Gunn. Photograph: www.houstongunn.com

Hoban, the founder of Trimino Protein Water, has partnered with Trump to sell the drink at Trump golf courses and at Trump Tower Cafe, according to his Twitter account.

