Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump received good news and bad news Tuesday in the ongoing Trump University litigation battles.
First, the good news for Trump: Videos of his deposition about Trump University won’t be made public before the November election. Federal district court judge Gonzalo Curiel, who is overseeing two Trump University lawsuits in San Diego, said the risk that the videos would taint possible jurors superseded the public’s right to see them.
“The core question is whether the public’s interest in viewing the demeanor of Defendant in the deposition videos outweighs the impairment to judicial efficiency likely to result,” he wrote in his order. “The Court concludes that it does not.”
But there’s also a dark cloud accompanying Trump’s silver lining. Curiel also denied his motion for summary judgment in Cohen v. Trump, a civil RICO case that places Trump at the center of an alleged racketeering scheme through Trump University. That case will now head to trial after the election.
While Curiel sided with the plaintiffs in the case, his ruling doesn’t mean he agrees with them on the merits. “The Court does not engage in credibility determinations, weighing of evidence, or drawing of legitimate inferences from the facts; these functions are for the [jury],” Curiel explained.