Donald Trump is continuing to defend himself against allegations that his real estate school defrauded customers — claims that are at the heart of a recent New York Attorney General lawsuit — by lashing out at his longtime rival, President Barack Obama.
New York AG Eric Schneiderman filed the suit Saturday, seeking $40 million in damages for what he called “a classic bait and switch scheme,” in which he alleges that students were pushed to buy expensive class packages in hopes of being trained into top notch real estate brokers.
Consumers complained to the AG’s office that Trump’s free seminars, which touted promises of making money from buying and selling real estate, were in fact aimed at nudging participants to enroll in expensive programs.
The school also lied to the New York State Department of Education, Schneiderman alleged, never getting teachers certified as required by state law.
“Some of their teachers had actually just come out of bankruptcy from their real estate ventures,” Schneiderman told CNN on New Day Monday.
Trump, for his part, fired back with questions about the timing of the suit.
“I’m not accusing the president of anything, but it was sort of interesting… he met with President Obama on Thursday night in Syracuse, filed the case on Saturday afternoon at 1:00,” Trump told CNN. “Now I’ve been dealing with the government a long time and I’ve never heard of a government filing a case on a Saturday afternoon.” [Time] and [CNN] and [CNN] — Julie Strickland