Settlement Reached In Trump University Lawsuit

According to a statement from the office of New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman, the Trump University lawsuit has been settled for $25 million, bringing the president-elect's ongoing legal drama to a close. The statement including a stinging rhetorical indictment of the Trump University program, however ― Schneiderman denounced it as "fraudulent" and "phony," and described Trump's decision to settle the suit as a "stunning reversal."



Back in February, Trump tweeted that he could've settled the case, but wouldn't "out of principle." Months later, even more in the thick of his presidential campaign, Trump assailed the judge overseeing the case, Gonzalo Curiel, as being biased against him because of the 63-year-old jurist's Mexican heritage.

The fraud trial had been looming large in the days following Trump's upset Electoral College victory over former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, as it undeniably made the transition into the Trump administration a little less certain and a lot more tumultuous. Suffice to say, it's unusual for an incoming president to be facing a civil fraud trial while they're trying to put a government together, on top of the already unusual fact that Trump is the first person ever elected president with zero experience in the government or military.

In any case, whether out of concern how the trial might have turned out, or simply to clear his schedule and avoid any extra negative publicity in advance of his inauguration, Trump has decided to buck his previously stated "principle," agreeing to pay up slightly more than half of the $40 million Schneiderman had sought.