Judge attacked by Trump as a 'Mexican' weighs releasing key video in Trump University case

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SOURCE: Washington Post

URL: https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/judge-attacked-by-trump-weighs-releasing-key-video-in-trump-university-case/2016/07/13/f4881a72-494c-11e6-bdb9-701687974517_story.html

By Roxana Popescu


SAN DIEGO — In his first public hearing on Trump University since being called a “hater of Donald Trump” by the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, U.S. District Judge Gonzalo Curiel on Wednesday heard arguments about whether the candidate’s videotaped testimony in the case should be released to media organizations.

Curiel did not mention the attacks by Trump, who during a rally here in May and in other remarks accused the Indiana-born judge of being biased because he is Hispanic and Trump has proposed building a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border.

But Curiel pushed Trump’s attorney to defend his position that the videos should remain confidential.

“One of the touchstones of the cases has been protecting the integrity of the proceedings,” Curiel said, asking Trump attorney Daniel Petrocelli to explain how releasing the videos would jeopardize that.

Petrocelli responded that the videos “would be subjected to massive and perhaps unprecedented public dissemination.”

The transcript of Trump’s deposition in the civil fraud case against his seminar company has already been made public, but media organizations, including The Washington Post, are seeking release of the video.

In May, responding to a motion filed by The Post citing the public’s interest in a potential president, Curiel ordered the release of hundreds of pages of internal Trump University documents that showed the company’s aggressive tactics in recruiting customers and pressuring them to spend more money. In his order, Curiel noted that Trump had “placed the integrity of these court proceedings at issue” and noted that courts deciding on public disclosure must weigh “whether the case involves issues important to the public.”

The class-action case, one of several in which former customers allege they were defrauded by a program that did not live up to its promises, is scheduled to go to trial in November after the presidential election.

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