Joseph Spector

Gannett Albany Bureau Chief

ALBANY — Calling Trump University a "three-card monte game," New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman on Tuesday applauded a judge's decision last week to release more documents pertaining to a lawsuit against the now defunct real-estate school.

Donald Trump and Schneiderman have engaged in a bitter legal fight and war of words over the controversial Trump University since the Democratic attorney general filed a $40 million lawsuit in 2013, claiming students were bilked. The case, which is also being played out in California courts because of a separate lawsuit there, is headed for trial in New York as early as November.

"You’re not allowed to protect the trade secrets of a three-card monte game," Schneiderman said on CNN. "You’re not allowed to protect the trade secrets of conducting a fraud."

U.S. District Judge Gonzalo Curiel last week ordered documents to be released in the case, including "playbooks" that show how sales employees were to engage with customers of Trump University.

The decision irked Trump, who on Friday ripped Curiel as a "hater of Donald Trump" and suggested the judge, who is Hispanic, is Mexican. He was born in Indiana.

"What happens is the judge, who happens to be — we believe — Mexican. Which is great. I think that's fine," Trump said in a speech in San Diego. "You know what? I think the Mexicans are going to end up loving Donald Trump when I give all these jobs."

He also knocked Schneiderman, saying the lawsuit is politically motivated against the presumptive GOP presidential nominee.

"Obama meets with this dopey Eric Schneiderman, who hates our governor and wants to run for governor, but I don’t think it’s going to happen," Trump said Friday. "They go up to Syracuse, meets with Obama and he files a lawsuit."

On Tuesday, Trump again knocked the judge and repeated his contention that Trump University was a success, saying the majority of students were satisfied with the program.

"I will win the Trump University case. I already am, as far as I’m concerned," Trump said, adding, "I could settle that case. I could have settled that case. I just choose not to."

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Schneiderman said Trump's legal team has sought to quash the release of documents and fought against having the case go to trial.

"This was a fraud from top to bottom," Schneiderman said. "He’s using every trick he can do to delay the release of documents, to delay the trials – attacking the judge for his ethnicity, attacking me and accusing me of conspiring with the president of the United States."

Schneiderman pointed to a playbook released last week in the California court case that showed how employees were encouraged to get customers to sign up for additional courses that cost $20,000 or more.

"So the playbook just shows it was a pitch up to just try to and dupe these people into spending more money," he said.