Donald Trump could face new legal action over his controversial Trump University venture, after a new suit was filed in federal court.

In November, days after he won the presidency, Trump settled three class action fraud lawsuits over Trump University, for $25m. More than 6,000 people were listed in the suits, claiming they were lured into paying up to $35,000 to learn the secrets of Trump’s business success.

Now, one member of the class action lawsuits, Sherri Simpson, has filed an appeal against the settlement, claiming she was not allowed to exercise her right to “opt out” of the multimillion-dollar deal.

If the ninth circuit court of appeals – one of two courts that ruled against Trump’s travel ban in June – decides in her favor, Simpson intends to sue the president independently for fraud, which she hopes could see him give evidence before a jury.

“I believed in a jury trial,” Simpson told the Guardian. “It looked like we had such a strong case for trial after seven years of litigation.”

Simpson, a bankruptcy attorney who took courses at Trump University in 2010, had planned to sue on her own before learning of, and joining, one of the three class action suits.

In her appeal, her lawyers allege that she was told she would be able to be excluded from a settlement if she wished. Instead, Simpson says, she was not given forewarning of the $25m settlement with the president-elect – only learning of it from the media – and was not given a chance to withdraw.

“We’re asking them to rule that there is no authority to approve a settlement in this case, because it did not allow the class members to opt out – to say yes or no to the settlement,” said Gary B Friedman, representing Simpson with fellow attorney Deepak Gupta.

Trump University, a for-profit company that was not an accredited university or college, launched in 2005 with Trump promising that “students” would be mentored by hand-picked staff.

A Trump University “playbook” released in May 2016 showed that one of the pledges to enrollees read: “Only doers get rich. I know that in these three packed days, you will learn everything to make a million dollars within the next 12 months.”

The fraud lawsuits alleged that students learnt nothing of the sort, despite being encouraged to pay tens of thousands of dollars to attend weekend seminars.

Simpson, who lives in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, said she received a leaflet through the mail in 2010 and eventually ended up spending $19,000 on tuition.

“What I found from the very beginning was that it was just all upsell,” she said. “It was all a scam. It turned out it was a lot of cheerleading for Donald Trump and his successes.”

Friedman said the ninth circuit had granted “expedited treatment” of Simpson’s appeal, with a verdict expected in late summer or early fall. If the court rules that Simpson should not have been included in the settlement, she will be free to pursue her own lawsuit against Trump. She has said she will not settle out of court.

The $25m payout reached in 2016 was hailed as a victory by lawyers including New York attorney general Eric Schneiderman, who brought one of the three lawsuits involved. It is unclear what would happen to the 6,000 people involved in the settlement if Simpson were to win her appeal.

Trump University – and the associated lawsuits – became an issue in the Republican primaries and the presidential campaign, with opponents releasing ads which featured some disgruntled former students.

In May 2016 a federal judge, Gonzalo Curiel, made public more than 400 “playbooks”, which showed how staff were instructed to get people to accrue credit card debt to pay for tuition fees, and ordered to target financial weaknesses in a bid to sell further courses.

Trump, who launched his campaign by accusing Mexico of sending “rapists” to the US, attacked Curiel over the release.

“I have a judge who is a hater of Donald Trump,” Trump said at a rally. “A hater. He’s a hater. His name is Gonzalo Curiel. And he is not doing the right thing ... [He] happens to be, we believe, Mexican.”

A spokesperson for Trump did not return a request for comment. </s> The suit seeks 2.8 million dollars (£2.1 million) in restitution and the dissolution of the foundation.

Democrat Barbara Underwood filed the suit against the Trump Foundation and its directors, Mr Trump and his children Donald Trump Jr, Eric Trump and Ivanka Trump.

New York’s attorney general has filed a lawsuit against Donald Trump’s foundation, claiming it served as a personal piggy bank for his businesses, legal bills and presidential campaign.

Sorry, this content isn't available on your device.

Sorry, this content isn't available on your device.

Ms Underwood said the foundation illegally helped support the Republican’s campaign by raising money at a nationally televised fundraiser in January 2016, then allowing campaign staff to dictate how the money was spent in grants.

Mr Trump insisted he would not settle the lawsuit, calling it a “ridiculous case” that former state attorney general Eric Schneiderman “never had the guts to bring” forward before he “resigned his office in disgrace”.

Trump made a similar claim that he would not settle a lawsuit charging that his Trump University misled customers, but ultimately paid a 25 million dollar (£18 million) settlement last year.

The Trump Foundation said the new lawsuit is “politics at its very worst”.

The foundation defended its record, saying it had donated over 19 million dollars (£14 million) to worthy charitable causes.

It said it had been planning to shut down for more than a year, but had been stopped from doing so because of the state’s investigation. </s> The agreement came 10 days before jury selection was scheduled to begin in one of three cases.

President-elect Donald Trump agreed Friday to pay $25 million to settle lawsuits against his now-defunct Trump University for real estate investors, averting a trial in a potentially embarrassing case that he had vowed during the campaign to keep fighting.

The agreement came 10 days before jury selection was scheduled to begin in one of three cases. The complaints accused Trump University, which wasn’t an accredited school, of defrauding students who paid up to $35,000 a year to enroll in programs that promised to share Mr. Trump’s real estate secrets.

About 7,000 students would be eligible for refunds if U.S. District Judge Gonzalo Curiel approves the proposed settlement. Under the terms, Trump admitted no wrongdoing in two class—action lawsuits in San Diego and a civil suit brought by New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman.

The settlement lifts what would probably have been a major headache for Trump as he works to fill key executive branch positions and get acquainted with foreign leaders. The San Diego trial, on a case filed in 2010, was expected to last several weeks, guaranteeing daily news coverage of a controversy that dogged him during the campaign.

Mr. Trump’s political rivals seized on the lawsuits to try to portray him as dishonest and deceitful. Trump brought more attention to them by repeatedly assailing Curiel, who oversaw the San Diego cases. Trump suggested the Indiana-born judge’s Mexican heritage exposed a bias.

The thousands of former students covered by the San Diego lawsuits will be eligible to receive at least half and possibly all their money back, as much as $35,000, said Jason Forge, an attorney for the plaintiffs. The plaintiffs’ attorneys waived their fees.

Mr. Trump has denied the allegations and said during the campaign that he would not 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.

Two days after the election, Mr. Trump’s lead attorney in the San Diego cases, Daniel Petrocelli, said he was “all ears” to settlement talks and accepted an offer to have U.S. District Judge Jeffrey Miller of San Diego broker negotiations.

Forge said the agreement was reached an hour before a hearing for Curiel to weigh Trump’s latest request to delay the trial until after the Jan. 20 inauguration. The plaintiffs’ attorney said he “definitely detected a change of tone and change of approach” from Trump’s camp after the election.

“We were at each other’s throat for 6 years and were able to find the common ground with them and do something good there,” Forge told reporters.

Schneiderman called the agreement a “stunning reversal” for the president-elect, saying Mr. 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.”

Mr. Trump’s attorneys said the settlement allows the president—elect to focus full attention on his transition to the White House.

“He was willing to sacrifice his personal interests, put this behind him, and move forward,” Petrocelli said.

Alan Garten, the Trump Organization’s general counsel, said he had “no doubt” Trump would have prevailed at trial.

The lawsuits allege that Trump University gave nationwide seminars that were like infomercials, constantly pressuring people to spend more and, in the end, failing to deliver on its promises. The San Diego trial would have been pinned on whether a nine—member jury believed Trump misled customers by calling the business a university and by advertising that he hand—picked instructors.

Court documents unsealed in May revealed strategies for enticing people to enroll even if they couldn’t afford it. The documents outlined how employees should guide people through “the roller coaster of emotions” after they express interest and tells employees to be “very aggressive during these conversations to in order to push them out of their comfort zones.”

Transcripts of about 10 hours of Trump depositions provided additional material to rivals, though Curiel denied a request to release video of Trump’s testimony that would have likely been used in campaign attack ads. Trump acknowledged in the depositions that he played on people’s fantasies, and he could not recall names of his employees despite his advertising pitch that he “hand—picked” them.

Mr. Trump has repeatedly claimed a 98 percent customer satisfaction rate on internal surveys. Plaintiffs countered that students were asked to rate the product when they believed they still had more instruction to come and were reluctant to openly criticize their teachers on surveys that were not anonymous.

The settlement comes a day after watchdog groups and ethics experts who served in both Republican and Democratic administrations sent a letter to Trump urging him to make a clean break from his business to avoid “embroiling the presidency in litigation.”

One of the authors, Richard Painter, an ethics lawyer at the White House under President George W. Bush, said the Trump University settlement might backfire if lawyers think Trump is eager to settle to avoid court cases while president.

“The plaintiffs’ lawyers,” he said, “are going to smell blood in the water.” </s> (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais, File). FILE - President Donald Trump holds up an executive order for border security and immigration enforcement improvements after signing the order during a visit to the Homeland Security Department headquarters in...

NEW YORK (AP) - The Latest on New York's lawsuit against the Trump Foundation (all times local):

The White House is blasting a lawsuit filed by New York's attorney general against President Donald Trump and his foundation, suggesting that is politically motivated.

White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders told reporters that Attorney General Barbara Underwood was "outrageously biased." Sanders also blasted Underwood's predecessor - Eric Schneiderman, who resigned last month - for being a longtime Trump antagonist.

Sanders said the alleged bias was "problematic."

Underwood and Schneiderman are Democrats. Trump is a Republican.

The lawsuit alleges that Trump and his adult children used the charity's money to settle disputes in his business empire and promote his political fortunes during his run for the White House.

The lawsuit seeks $2.8 million in restitution, additional unspecified penalties and the foundation's dissolution. Trump had already pledged to dismantle it.

The Trump Foundation says in a statement that a lawsuit filed against it by New York's attorney general is "politics at its very worst."

The suit filed Thursday says President Donald Trump illegally used the charity to pay legal settlements related to his golf clubs, buy a painting of himself and bolster his political image with donations directed by his campaign staff.

The Foundation defended its record, saying it had donated over $19 million to worthy charitable causes.

It said it had been planning to shut down for more than a year, but had been stopped from doing so because of the state's investigation.

It also said it had $1.7 million remaining to give out to charity "that the NYAG has been holding hostage for political gain."

President Donald Trump is declaring that he "won't settle" a lawsuit from the New York attorney general alleging that the Trump Foundation engaged in pattern of illegal self-dealing.

The president is calling it on Twitter a "ridiculous case" that former state Attorney General Eric Schneiderman "never had the guts to bring" forward before he "resigned his office in disgrace."

The lawsuit, brought by current state Attorney General Barbara Underwood, alleges that the president's charitable foundation served as a personal piggy bank for his businesses, legal bills and presidential campaign. The lawsuit targets the foundation, Trump and three of his children.

Trump made a similar claim that he wouldn't settle a lawsuit charging that his Trump University misled customers but ultimately paid a $25 million settlement last year.

New York's attorney general says President Donald Trump's foundation served as a personal piggy bank for his businesses, legal bills and presidential campaign.

Democratic Attorney General Barbara Underwood filed a lawsuit Thursday against the foundation and its directors, Trump and his children Donald Trump Jr., Eric Trump and Ivanka Trump. The suit seeks $2.8 million in restitution and the dissolution of the foundation.

Underwood says the foundation illegally helped support the Republican's campaign by raising money at a nationally televised fundraiser in January 2016, then allowing campaign staffers to dictate how the money was spent in grants.

The 10:55 a.m. item has been corrected to say the lawsuit was filed Thursday, not Wednesday.

Copyright 2018 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. </s> WASHINGTON (AP) — The attorneys general of Maryland and the District of Columbia plan to sue President Donald Trump.

District of Columbia Attorney General Karl Racine and Maryland Attorney General Brian Frosh plan to announce what they call a “major lawsuit” Monday against the president. A statement released to the press Monday says they’ll announce the suit at a news conference in Washington.

According to The Washington Post , the suit alleges that Trump violated constitutional anti-corruption clauses by taking payments from foreign governments while in office. The Post says the lawsuit centers on Trump retaining ownership of his company when he became president.

Trump said he was shifting assets into a trust managed by his sons to eliminate potential conflicts of interest. </s> U.S. President-elect Donald Trump has requested that a trial over a lawsuit by former students of his now-defunct Trump University be put on hold until after the presidential inauguration, according to a motion filed by his lawyer late Saturday.

A trial in federal court in San Diego over former Trump University students’ claims that they were defrauded by a series of real-estate seminars is scheduled to begin on Nov. 28, but Trump lawyer Daniel Petrocelli said the president-elect needs to “devote all of his time and attention to the transition process.”

Trump is due to assume office on Jan. 20, 2017.

“The 69 days until inauguration are critical and all-consuming,” Petrocelli said in the filing, arguing that the president-elect should not be required to stand trial during that time.

Petrocelli had said at a hearing in San Diego on Thursday that he would request the delay, though U.S. District Judge Gonzalo Curiel, who is overseeing the lawsuit, told lawyers he was not inclined to put off the six-year-old case further and encouraged the parties to settle.

The lawsuit involves students who claim they were lured by false promises to pay up to $35,000 to learn Trump’s real estate investing “secrets” from his “hand-picked” instructors.

Trump owned 92 per cent of Trump University and had control over all major decisions, the students’ court papers say. The president-elect denies the allegations and has argued that he relied on others to manage the business.

Curiel also tentatively rejected last week a bid by the president-elect to keep a wide range of statements from the presidential campaign, which included attacks against Curiel himself, out of the fraud trial.

Trump attacked the judge as biased against him. He claimed Curiel, who was born in Indiana but is of Mexican descent, could not be impartial because of Trump’s election campaign pledge to build a wall between the United States and Mexico.

Trump’s lawyers have argued that Curiel should bar from the trial accusations about Trump’s personal conduct including alleged sexual misconduct, his taxes and corporate bankruptcies, along with speeches and tweets.

Curiel is presiding over two cases against Trump and the university. A separate lawsuit by New York’s attorney general is pending.

While presidents enjoy immunity from lawsuits arising from their official duties, the U.S. Supreme Court has held that this shield does not extend to acts alleged to have taken place prior to taking office. (Reporting by Tracy Rucinski; Editing by Alan Crosby) </s> The University of California has sued the Trump administration over its decision to end a program protecting hundreds of thousands of young immigrants from deportation.The lawsuit filed on Friday in federal court in San Francisco includes university president Janet Napolitano as a plaintiff.Napolitano was Homeland Security secretary under the Obama administration and helped implement its Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program.The program protected about 800,000 people who were brought to the U.S. illegally as children or came with families who overstayed visas.The lawsuit says the university will lose students and employees because of President Donald Trump's decision to end the program.An email sent to the U.S. Department of Justice seeking comment was not immediately returned.Fifteen states have sued separately over the president's decision. </s> WASHINGTON (AP) — The attorneys general of Maryland and the District of Columbia are planning to file a lawsuit against President Donald Trump.

District of Columbia Attorney General Karl Racine and Maryland Attorney General Brian Frosh plan to announce what they call a “major lawsuit” Monday against the president.

A statement released to the press on Monday says the attorneys general will make the announcement at a news conference planned for noon in Washington. </s> The attorneys general of Maryland and the District of Columbia say they will sue Donald Trump on Monday, alleging he has violated the Constitution by taking payments from foreign governments as president. Maryland Attorney General Brian Frosh outlined details of the lawsuit in an interview with The Associated Press. Much of it is focused on alleged ...
The New York Attorney General announces that Donald Trump has settled three lawsuits by former students of Trump University for $25 million.