Judge finalizes $25M settlement in Trump University case

A federal judge on Monday finalized the $25 million settlement between President Trump and former students of the now-defunct Trump University.

U.S. District Judge Gonzalo Curiel approved the settlement roughly a year ago. After a federal appeals court rejected a student’s objection to the settlement in February, Curiel finalized the deal on Monday.

New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman said in a statement that “victims of Donald Trump’s fraudulent university will finally receive the relief they deserve.”

{mosads}“This settlement marked a stunning reversal by President Trump, who for years refused to compensate the victims of his sham university,” Schneiderman said. 

The settlement marks an end to two class-action lawsuits filed by former students, who said they were misled into enrolling in the university’s real-estate seminars and given “educations” that were essentially worthless. Schneiderman later filed a civil suit over the programs.

Trump University, which shut down in 2010, was not required to admit wrongdoing in the settlement. 

Trump originally refused to settle the case, and bragged on the campaign trail about his history of seeing cases through to the end. However, he announced shortly after the 2016 election he would settle the Trump University lawsuit.

He also made headlines when he claimed that Curiel’s Mexican heritage could lead to a biased ruling in the case because of Trump’s immigration positions.