
Trump University Settles Fraud Claims for $25M - spuiszis
http://www.bloomberg.com/politics/articles/2016-11-18/trump-university-settles-fraud-claims-for-25-million
======
kafkaesq
_“Donald 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,” Schneiderman said in a
statement. “Today, that all changes. Today’s $25 million settlement agreement
is a stunning reversal by Donald Trump and a major victory for the over 6,000
victims of his fraudulent university.”_

That's not even 5k a head. A pittance, really.

~~~
chrsstrm
You forgot to take the attorney's fees off the top first. Even at the low end
of the scale ~30%, that brings the individual payouts to less than $3K.

~~~
icebraining
_" Lawyers for the students agreed to forgo legal fees as part of the
settlement."_

~~~
chrsstrm
You're right. That detail was left out of another article I read about the
case, which must have been what I used as my source. It seems strange that
attorneys would waive fees in a suit against a billionaire that has dragged
out for nearly 4 years now. That's a lot of goodwill.

------
superplussed
Weren't the defendants in a position of greater leverage once he was elected
president? From what I'd read, it would have been the first time a sitting
president was forced to defend himself in a criminal trial. So if you've
endured this legal battle for so long, why settle for a relatively small
amount just when your leverage has started to climb?

~~~
rayiner
No, he had less leverage. Ongoing lawsuits are embarrassing. Being deposed as
the sitting President is _really_ embarrassing. Settling the case was the
smart thing.

~~~
harryh
Pretty sure that OP was wondering why the plaintiffs agreed to settle, not the
other way around.

~~~
superplussed
Of course that was my point.

------
spuiszis
I can only wonder what effect this would have on voters if it settled prior
the the election.

~~~
krapp
None. The people who opposed Trump would still have opposed him, and the
people who supported him would have brought up the Clinton email scandal and
accused the media of slander and propaganda for even trying to equivocate him
with "crooked Hillary."

Trump quipped during the election that he could shoot somebody and not lose
voters, and I kind of suspect he wasn't wrong. His support was a matter of
reactionist ideology - it didn't matter if he was honest, competent, or
sincere, only that he served as the vessel for the right wing zeitgeist.

~~~
icanhackit
It makes you wonder how many people consider politics to be like sport - you
have your team and stick with them. Even if a player on a team is accused of a
crime (usually sexual) fans often stick with them and blame the victim
instead.

~~~
nickthemagicman
Its all.belief and tribalism. Just like religion and sports. Fundamental
lizard brain stuff.

Scary to see where thats led us throughout history.

~~~
krapp
knee-jerk tribalism a difficult trap to avoid. Even on HN, which is supposed
to self-select for high intellect and curiosity, politics seems to short-
circuit otherwise reasonable and intelligent people's rational thinking. I've
fallen prey to it a number of times without even realizing it.

~~~
grzm
Agreed. Forums do have one advantage: you have the opportunity to review what
you wrote before you submit. And if we can note politely when we see it in
others, maybe we can build better habits. Who knows? We manage to shape our
speech in different contexts.

Maybe I could have a little js script (that I run myself) that detects
language I'd rather not use. Kind of like a spell checker. I could choose to
turn it on, and I could choose to ignore its suggestions. Or maybe more like
an ignition interlock, but one I can override :)

------
afinlayson
I wonder if Donald Trump of 2012 would let a President Elect who was found to
have conned thousands without making a big deal of it. "Worst abuse of power
ever" or something like that.

~~~
sintaxi
The thing with a settlement. He now wont be found to have conned thousands.

------
cmdrfred
If you are curious like I was why this wasn't a bigger issue during the
election, turns out the other candidate wasn't in a position to take the moral
high ground on this either.

[http://www.politico.com/story/2016/08/bill-clinton-
laureate-...](http://www.politico.com/story/2016/08/bill-clinton-laureate-for-
profit-college-pay-226971)

~~~
tzs
One big difference is that Laureate's schools are generally legitimate, with
proper accreditation and whose degrees actually have some value. Generally
about the worst you can say for most of the programs and schools is that you
may have been able to get a better deal financial at a non-profit school.

Trump University, on the other hand, was pretty much a straight up rip off.

