John Kelly, and Nick Penzenstadler

USA TODAY

As voters across the country were voting Tuesday to elect billionaire Donald J. Trump the next President of the United States, lawyers and a judge dealt with new motions in a California court in what may be one of the most important of 75 or so still-open lawsuits involving Trump and his businesses.

In fact, the last seven days saw a flurry of motions, responses and rulings in one of the class-action lawsuits brought by former Trump University students, who say the Republican president-elect’s company ripped them off for tens of thousands of dollars in tuition for a sham real-estate course.

The Trump University cases – there are three of them still open – are among the most serious remaining lawsuits involving Trump and his companies as the businessman transitions from candidate to the White House because they involve allegations of fraud and racketeering.

Among the other cases are a $4 million lawsuit brought by a Republican political consultant who said Trump defamed her; a class-action claiming his presidential campaign broke consumer protection laws by sending unsolicited text messages to people’s cellphones; and a suit by a golf club employee who says she was fired after complaining to her bosses about sexual harassment.

But the most problematic for President-elect Trump will likely be the real-estate course racketeering and fraud cases – because of the seriousness of the allegations made. In any one of the cases, an official ruling by a court that Trump or his company were financially liable for fraud could provide Congress with grounds to consider impeachment proceedings. There’s a hearing Thursday in the California case to hash out motions that will set the tone for the trial, which is set for Nov. 28.

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“If the fraud and racketeering allegations against President-elect Trump are true, he is legally impeachable for high crimes or misdemeanors,” said Christopher Peterson, a law professor at the University of Utah who’s researched the Trump University cases, who acknowledged that while that’s technically the case, a Republican controlled Congress makes that very unlikely. “Whether he is politically impeachable is another matter.”

Nevertheless, Peterson said on Wednesday that a long, drawn-out public exposure of a sitting President of the United States to witness testimony, embarrassing documents or what would be a high-profile trial could be time consuming and distracting, and come with lingering political cost.

Trump’s attorneys often settle lawsuits, according to USA TODAY’s analysis of more than 4,000 court cases involving Trump and his companies over the decades, and Peterson said that may prove the wisest course in the remaining Trump University actions.

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“If I were advising President-elect Trump,” he said, “I would encourage him to move heaven and earth to settle his pending Trump University lawsuits in order to spare the country the trauma and spectacle of his upcoming trial.”

Attorneys for Trump in two cases and plaintiffs in the Trump University case did not return messages for comment on Wednesday as to whether they renewed any settlement discussions. Trump has said he would hand his sprawling business empire over to his children in an arrangement he described as a “blind trust.”

“I will sever connections and I’ll have my children and my executives run the company, and I won’t discuss it with them,” Trump said on Fox News in September in response to questions about broader potential conflicts raised by his businesses. “It’s just so unimportant compared to what we’re doing about Making America Great Again.” His daughter, Ivanka, has said the company will avoid deals that could pose potential conflicts for her father.

Dive into Donald Trump's thousands of lawsuits

Trump can’t completely sever the connections because nothing in the law protects a sitting president from having to testify or being forced to release private business and financial records. That could take up his time or the time of his aides and attorneys.

This summer, while the nation was dealing with the mass shooting at the Pulse night club in Orlando, Trump was giving a deposition in one of the lawsuits involving the chefs and his Washington hotel.

On the campaign trail, in recent months, Trump threatened additional lawsuits against journalists and several women who publicly accused Trump of unwanted sexual advances. Trump eased up on those threats in the waning days of the campaign.

Some of the open lawsuits create potential conflict of interest for the President-Elect, according to legal experts, presidential historians and others interviewed by USA TODAY during a months-long investigation that tracked more than 4,000 lawsuits involving Trump and his companies.

For example, could his appointments to the federal judiciary be influenced by his own court cases, current and past? In the Trump University case in California, Trump publicly lashed out at District Judge Gonzalo Curiel, saying he was biased against Trump because he is of Mexican descent and Trump has proposed building a “great wall” along the Mexican border.

Also, could judges, attorneys or parties in litigation involving Trump and companies alter decisions or outcomes of cases as a way of gaining favor with the President of the United States, even if those companies have been handed over to Trump’s children to run?

As the “boss” of tens of thousands of government employees and the chooser of key leadership positions in dozens of federal agencies, Trump would also face potential questions about how he’d untangle his business interests and government interest in some cases. For instance, he’s involved in two lawsuits with chefs who walked away from deals to open restaurants in the Trump Organization’s new hotel at the Old Post Office building in Washington. Trump’s landlord: the federal government.

Trump’s attorneys have argued that only a couple dozen of the active cases are significant and they’ll deal with those as any large company with massive holdings deals with them.

Trump and the Law

“The results shouldn’t be different in the eyes of the law,” said Alan Garten, general counsel for Trump and his business interests, in the final weeks before Election Day.

Some of the cases against Trump are of the frivolous nature filed all the time by conspiracy theorists, prisoners and others against government officials and celebrities.

His attorneys have continued to work in the months leading up the election to both close active cases involving Trump and the companies, and to fight against efforts by the news media – and other groups – to unseal records in other cases, such as his divorce from Ivana Trump and the Trump University suits.

Shifting from candidate to president only boosts Trump’s profile and potential requests to unlock records in other Trump cases, both as part of legitimate fact-seeking by news media organizations and politically-motivated pursuits by interest groups.