'I'm Not Impeached, You're Impeached': Ex-Ethics Boss Mocks Pam Bondi's Hypocrisy | HuffPost

The former Florida attorney general has her own murky past with Trump and a class-action lawsuit against his “university.”
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/pam-bondi-walter-shaub-corruption-impeachment_n_5e2faf5fc5b6d34ea10436e1

New York attorney general hires Preet Bharara alum as prosecutor, signaling more Trump investigations (Salon)

President Donald Trump may have fired U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara earlier this month, but that doesn't mean he's done dealing with Bharara's former team — and their investigations into Trump's administration.

New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman, whose pursuit of the Trump University fraud case ultimately pressured the then president-elect into settling for $25 million, has hired public-corruption prosecutor Howard Master to focus on cases related to the Trump administration...
http://www.salon.com/2017/03/20/new-yorks-attorney-general-hires-preet-bharara-alum-as-prosecutor-signaling-more-trump-investigations/

Republican Proposal Would Make Trump University Lawsuits "Almost Impossible" (BuzzFeed News)

The proposed law would be "the death knell" for class action suits, according to a leader of the Trump University case. ...
https://www.buzzfeed.com/coralewis/bill-would-make-trump-university-lawsuit-impossible?utm_term=.pbpDXO66X#.rtynlNZZl

What Trump Foundation’s “self-dealing” disclosure means for a conflicted president-elect - Salon.com

Earlier this month, we learned that the Donald J. Trump Foundation admitted to acts of self-dealing in its most recent IRS filing.

But what is self-dealing and, more significantly, what does it mean for the president-elect as he deals with his many conflict of interest issues when he runs the country?...
http://www.salon.com/2016/12/15/trump-foundations-self-dealing-disclosure_partner/

The New York Times: Donald Trump Agrees to Pay $25 Million in Trump University Settlement

Former students said they were cheated out of thousands of dollars in tuition, and one of the cases was set to go before a jury in 10 days. ...
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/19/us/politics/trump-university.html

TPM: Trump U Lawyers Ask That Trial Be Postponed Until After Inauguration

Lawyers representing President-elect Donald Trump want to postpone an upcoming Trump University fraud trial until after he is inaugurated.
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/trump-university-trial-lawyers-ask-postponed-inauguration

The legal baggage Donald Trump would bring to the White House

After FBI Director James Comey sent a letter to Congress on Friday saying that the agency would be reviewing new emails to see if they are relevant to its investigation of Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server while Secretary of State, Donald Trump has wasted no time in saying the announcement should keep her from office. He called her “corrupt,” claiming the corruption is “on a scale we have never seen before.”

He added, “We must not let her take her criminal scheme into the Oval Office.”

But what Trump left out is that he himself is involved in a number of legal battles that are still ongoing, some of which have court dates scheduled for just after the election. While there are differences between these lawsuits and the ongoing federal investigation into Clinton — most of the suits against Trump are civil claims — Trump would bring plenty of legal baggage into the White House....
https://thinkprogress.org/trump-pending-lawsuits-75a49b1db1ee#.p5le7mgnu

Donald Trump to Judge Curiel: please don't let my groping mess up my grifting

It was already clear that Trump University is a complete scam. But since Trump University wasn’t an actual university, didn’t have a campus, and only kept students around until they’d turned over their last dime, you’d think there wouldn’t be a problem with Trump getting overly aggressive with Trump U “coeds.” However, Trump is now fighting to make sure he doesn't get his grope on his grift....
http://www.dailykos.com/stories/1585374

Clinton Camp Hits Back At Trump's IRS Fine: That's 'Actual Pay-To-Play!'

Hillary Clinton's campaign fired back Friday on the news that Donald Trump paid an IRS penalty for violating tax law with a donation to a political committee backing the Florida attorney general, calling it "an actual pay-to-play scandal" in a statement.

Clinton spokeswoman Jennifer Palmieri's remarks repurposed Trump's own attacks on the former secretary of state, whom he has accused of running a "pay-to-play" scheme trading access to the State Department for donors to the Clinton Foundation.

"While the Clinton Foundation has received the highest ratings from independent charitable watchdogs, Donald Trump's use of foundation money to donate to the Florida Attorney General actually broke the law," Palmieri said in the statement....
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/clinton-hits-trump-irs-penalty

Amazing Find About Trump's Thinking on AG Payoffs

....just as Trump was cutting his check to Pam Bondi he was claiming that the New York Attorney General asked for contributions to kill the Trump University lawsuit ...
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/amazing-find-about-trump-s-thinking-on-ag-payoffs

WATCH: 'Trump U' Graduate Al Franken Brutalizes GOP Nominee in Hilarious Convention Speech

Minnesota Sen. Al Franken wowed the crowd at the Democratic National Convention Monday reverting back to the brilliant comedic style that launched his career on "Saturday Night Live" before he turned to politics.

Franken immediately went on the attack on Trump, mockingly saying he himself was a graduate—and was “bilked” by—Trump’s scandal-plagued Trump University.

“I got my doctorate in megalomania studies from Trump University,” Franken said as he lambasted Trump putting him in the company of radio host Rush Limbaugh and Bill O’Reilly of Fox News....
http://www.alternet.org/election-2016/al-franken-brutalizes-trump-dnc-speech

Trump Paying Off GOP Politicos To Stop Fraud Investigations

Donald Trump's Trump University has scammed hundreds of thousands, if not, millions of dollars from people all over this country. Right now, there is a massive investigation going on that is related to the activities of that scam, but several state investigations have been completely squashed thanks to Donald Trump's ties to Republican operatives. Ring of Fire's Farron Cousins discusses this.
Interview:
https://youtu.be/RZLTTCB77Ts

Paul Krugman Nails the GOP for Being the Party of Con Men—Just Like Trump

Paul Krugman makes an excellent case in Monday's column that Donald Trump's sleaziness is equaled by the party he now leads.

To get to his point, Krugman first dispenses with Trump's pile of frauds and schemes, all of which were fully evident before the GOP primary began, so why did no one bring them up? Trump University, his history of failing to pay contractors, and how he personally profited while running his casinos into the ground. Of course there is also the fact that he is not even as rich as he claims to be, nor as successful since he mostly inherited his wealth.

None of this has been hard to dig up, but Trump's GOP rivals just didn't. "Were they just incompetent, or is there something structural about the modern Republican Party that makes it unable to confront grifters?" Krugman asks, coming down on the side of the latter:...
http://www.alternet.org/election-2016/paul-krugman-nails-gop-being-party-con-men-just-trump

Clinton Camp Releases Mock Ad For Trump U: 'You Won't Learn Anything!'

Hillary Clinton's campaign released a mock video ad for Trump University on Twitter Saturday, citing reports that the business school preyed upon people for their money.

The video begins by highlighting "three easy steps" for "being a part of at Donald Trump's Wealth." 

"Step one: Sign up for Trump University," a narrator reads. "Step two: Pay for Trump University at the amazing price of everything you have. Step three: There is no step three. You won't actually learn anything. It's that easy."....
http://a1.img.talkingpointsmemo.com/image/upload/c_fill,fl_keep_iptc,g_faces,h_365,w_652/wozu8knrcfcoij1xa6o2.jpg

The Absolute Best, Most Terrific Reporting on Trump University

Trump University promised to help students get rich. Enrollees would study the wisdom of The Donald and get mentoring from other terrific businesspeople. But a class-action suit by former students and a suit brought by the New York attorney general allege that the unaccredited “school” mainly helped students part with the money in their wallets. (Trump has called the suits a “scam” and “thug politics.”)

Here are the stories on Trump U. that you should read....
https://www.propublica.org/article/the-absolute-best-most-terrific-reporting-on-trump-university

As Hillary Slams Trump University, Right Wingers Go After Bill for Making Millions From For-Profit Laureate Universities

Hillary Clinton’s campaign has ramped up its attacks this week on Donald Trump, citing how Trump University preyed on students and left many in debt. Now, right-wing websites are citing the Clinton’s 2014 tax returns showing the ex-president made $16.5 million from Laureate International Universities, which has been criticized for overpromising to students. “Don't get us wrong, we already knew Trump University was a massive scam and nothing close to an actual school,” said a Clinton campaign release on Friday.

“But this week, thanks to newly unsealed court documents, we learned just how big of a scam Trump U actually was. Preying on the elderly, encouraging potential customers to max out credit cards and drain their savings, and making trumped up promises about how to profit off of the housing crisis, Trump University was, as one of its former employees so aptly put it, a ‘fraudulent scheme’ and a ‘total lie.’”

Meanwhile, the top story on Breitbart.com was titled, “Hillary University: Bill Clinton Bagged $16.46 Million from For-Profit College as State Dept. Funneled $55 Million Back.”...
http://www.alternet.org/election-2016/hillary-slams-trump-university-right-wingers-go-after-bill-making-millions-profit

Senate Majority Leader Laughs Off Trump’s Racist Attack On Federal Judge

Speaking to the Wall Street Journal on Thursday, presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump attacked the federal judge overseeing the fraud case against Trump University in blatantly racist terms.

Trump said that the judge, Gonzalo Cruiel, had “an absolute conflict” because “of [his] Mexican heritage.” Trump stated that he was “building a wall” on the southern border so having someone of Cruiel’s ethnicity oversee his case was “an inherent conflict of interest.”...
http://thinkprogress.org/politics/2016/06/03/3784737/mitch-mcconnell-will-not-condemn-trump-racist-judge-attack/

It Grows

The Dallas Morning News reports that Texas state prosecutors built a $4.5 million fraud case against Trump and Trump University. But the case never went forward because it was deep-sixed by then-Attorney General and now Governor Greg Abbott (R). The former deputy director of Abbott's Consumer Protection Division, John Owens, tells the DMN: "“The decision not to sue him was political. Had [Trump] not been involved in politics to the extent he was at the time, we would have gotten approval. Had he been just some other scam artist, we would have sued him.”
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/it-grows

It's All a Con: Trump's Presidential Campaign Is as Big a Scam as Trump University

There is no longer any doubt that Donald Trump’s defunct real estate school, Trump University, was one big scam that operated to swindle credulous people out of their money. As Ronald Schnackenberg, a former sales manager at the for-profit venture (who was once reprimanded for not pushing hard enough to sell a $35,000 “elite program” to a couple who had “no money to pay for the program” and would have had to take out an equity loan on their apartment and used disability income) wrote in his testimony:

“I believe that Trump University was a fraudulent scheme and that it preyed upon the elderly and uneducated to separate them from their money.”

Much like Wall Street predators who sold subprime mortgages to unknowing Americans with promises of incessant growth in home value, Trump University sold bogus educations to bright-eyed working people, promising to teach them “better than the best business school.” And it was the promises that ultimately got Trump in trouble with the law. Falsely claiming that instructors were “handpicked” by Trump; calling them “professors and adjunct professors,” which they were not; deceptively promoting itself as an accredited school with the authoritative “University” in its name (New York regulators forced him to change the name in 2010). The for-profit educational venture was almost entirely concerned with the profit aspect, and gave “seminars and classes across the country that were like infomercials, constantly pressuring students to buy more.”

For a populist candidate who has sold himself as a common man fighting for Joe Average, preying on vulnerable, average Americans is certainly not a good look—which is why Donald is so furious that Judge Gonzalo Curiel ordered the public release of company records. This fiasco affirms what many people already knew: Trump is a snake-oil peddling charlatan for the 21st century; the lovechild of P.T. Barnum and George Wallace....
http://www.alternet.org/election-2016/donald-trumps-campaign-and-trump-u-are-scams

Testimonials for Fraudulent Trump University Are—You Guessed It—Scams Themselves

With Trump University facing a fraud lawsuit, GOP nominee Donald Trump has released a video featuring positive testimonials of the college from supposed former students. While past attendees of Trump University appeared overwhelmingly dissatisfied with the now defunct college, the ad at first appears to debunk their claim. Just one problem: the ad appears to be just as fraudulent as the school.....
http://www.alternet.org/election-2016/trump-testimonials-former-university-students-illegal-immigration-victims-require