SAN DIEGO — Lawyers for President-elect Donald Trump went to court Thursday to ask that a civil fraud suit against Trump scheduled to begin in less than three weeks be delayed, a reminder of the unusual complications facing Trump as he shifts from businessman to commander in chief.
Trump’s attorneys said he will be too busy with his presidential transition to participate in the Nov. 28 trial involving his defunct real estate seminar program, Trump University, asking that the trial be postponed until February or March after he has taken office.
They made their request before Judge Gonzalo Curiel, the jurist Trump had harshly criticized during the campaign as biased because of his Mexican heritage.
Curiel expressed concern about the wisdom of a delay given that Trump will assume the presidency Jan. 20. Curiel said he will probably issue a ruling by Monday.
The hearing came just two days after Trump’s victory, reflecting the continuing legal challenges facing an incoming president whose businesses are the subject of multiple pending civil suits.
“We’re in uncharted territory,” Trump lawyer Daniel Petrocelli told Curiel, noting that never before has a U.S. president or president-elect come to court under similar circumstances.
Later, Petrocelli told reporters that holding a trial during Trump’s presidency would be better than during the intensive transition period. He called the case a “very difficult circumstance for a sitting president – more so, I would say, for a president-elect, because he’s turning, right now as we speak, to a mountain of challenges in front of him, to get himself up to speed.”
The California Trump University case is one of two class-action fraud suits filed by former customers of the real estate seminar program. The former customers argue that they were misled by advertisements promising that Trump had hand-picked instructors for the program and that they would learn Trump’s personal tricks for real estate success.
Trump has said in depositions that he did not choose the instructors, many of whose names and faces he could not recall.
Also Thursday, Curiel rejected a request by Trump’s lawyers to prohibit the jury from hearing about Trump’s campaign-trail comments, including his attacks on the judge. Curiel called the request vague but said he might bar specific testimony at trial.
Trump’s lawyers argued that his campaign speeches, tweets and other public statements were “irrelevant” and “highly prejudicial.”
Send questions/comments to the editors.
Success. Please wait for the page to reload. If the page does not reload within 5 seconds, please refresh the page.
Enter your email and password to access comments.
Hi, to comment on stories you must . This profile is in addition to your subscription and website login.
Already have a commenting profile? .
Invalid username/password.
Please check your email to confirm and complete your registration.
Only subscribers are eligible to post comments. Please subscribe or login first for digital access. Here’s why.
Use the form below to reset your password. When you've submitted your account email, we will send an email with a reset code.