A fraud from beginning to end

New York AG: Trump U 'really a fraud from beginning to end'

By Nick Gass

New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman stepped up his attacks on Donald Trump’s Trump University business venture on Thursday, alleging the businessman and presumptive Republican nominee ran a thoroughly fraudulent enterprise.

“In New York, we have laws against business fraud, we have laws against consumer fraud,” Schneiderman told ABC’s George Stephanopoulos on “Good Morning America,” when asked which specific laws the Manhattan mogul broke in New York state, which filed a lawsuit against Trump in 2013. “We have a law against running an illegal unlicensed university. This never was a university. The fraud started with the name of the organization, and you can’t just go around saying this is the George Stephanopoulos Law Firm/Hospital/ University without actually qualifying and registering, so it was really a fraud from beginning to end.”

The state of New York’s lawsuit was the first of several pending against Trump, who could be called to testify in separate cases after the November general election, even as president-elect or president. “He doesn't have immunity from civil fraud trials,” Schneiderman said.

When Stephanopoulos noted that Trump has claimed the operation was a philanthropic venture, Schneiderman remarked, “Well, if it was a philanthropic venture, he certainly made out well from the philanthropic venture. The initial estimates are that he personally pocketed $5 million from this.”

“Can you prove that?” Stephanopoulos asked.

“We’re going to get more information when we get to the damages phase of the trial, but we’re confident that he didn’t do this for free,” Schneiderman said.

Pressed on his reelection campaign sending out an email touting the case against Trump on Wednesday as well as his name on Hillary Clinton’s New York leadership team, Schneiderman flatly rejected the Trump claim that the charges are politically motivated.

“Not at all. The case was brought in August of 2013 after over a year of investigation and extensive negotiations with Trump. If I had come on your show and said in August 2013 he would be the Republican nominee for president, you probably never would have invited me again,” Schneiderman said. “This is not a political case. It’s a straight-up fraud case.”

As far as his conversation with Trump in 2011, in which the businessman said he would be a national candidate, Schneiderman commented, “Mr. Trump says a lot of things at a lot of points in time, but I assure you, in the summer of 2013. this was just a fraud case.”

“We were bringing cases against different for-profit colleges. This one stuck out like a sore thumb because it really was remarkable. The New York state Department of Education was chasing them around, saying you can’t hold yourself out as a university. They kept saying they would change their name or move out of New York,” Schneiderman said. “This was just a scam.”

In a later appearance on MSNBC's "Morning Joe," Schneiderman this time invoked program co-host Joe Scarborough to make the same point he made with Stephanopoulos.

"It's fraud. This is just straight up fraud. It's like selling people something you say is a Mercedes and it turns out to be a Volkswagen," he said. "And even if some people say, 'Well I actually kind of like the Volkswagen, it's still fraud, 'cause it's not a Mercedes. This is not a university. And in New York, we are a little sensitive—you can't just put up a sign saying Scarborough Hospital, Scarborough University, Scarborough Law Firm."

Schneiderman also said that while the state of New York had deposed Trump University President Michael Sexton, it would not need to do the same for Trump. "We can use the evidence that we've gathered," the attorney general said.

"It would be fun," panelist Mike Barnicle remarked, to laughter. "We're not here to have fun," Schneiderman said.