With Trump attack on 'Mexican' judge, has he hit a new low? (Opinion) #JHedzWorlD
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To be clear, Trump is facing personal liability in this case as well as the other two cases involving Trump University, one in New York and another in California. In 2013, New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman filed a $40 million civil lawsuit against Trump personally and the school on behalf of 5,000 former students who had allegedly been defrauded. Schneiderman called Trump University “a bait and switch scheme” and noted that Trump could personally face millions in civil penalties under New York law. A separate federal class action lawsuit not connected to Curiel is also still pending in California. It alleges that Trump engaged in racketeering in violation of the RICO statute.
If Curiel were truly biased, Trump would have a point. But that’s simply not the case. Curiel is not some Democratic activist nominated by President Obama in 2011 to the federal bench as payback for his years of political service. Rather Curiel was first appointed in 2006 to the California Superior Court by then-Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.
Before that, Curiel served for 17 years as a federal prosecutor and was even targeted by a Mexican drug cartel in the 1990s for assassination after his efforts to extradite two drug kingpins from Mexico. And when Curiel was finally confirmed as a federal judge by the U.S. Senate in 2012, it was by way of a voice vote with no recorded Republican opposition. Apparently Trump has not figured out how to use Google or perhaps more likely, he could not care less about the facts.
Even Trump’s claim on Friday that Curiel has “given us ruling after ruling after ruling, negative, negative, negative” is undermined by the facts. Just a few weeks ago, Curiel agreed to Trump’s request to delay the trial in this case from this summer, as originally scheduled, to after the election. As Curiel stated in making this ruling in Trump’s favor and over the plaintiffs’ objections, he feared the “media frenzy” could make it impossible for the jury to be unbiased.
But still that ruling was not enough for Trump. In Trump’s view, this “Mexican” judge still needed to be investigated, without offering any specific facts as to why.
Trump concluded his tirade about Curiel by noting how much he relished the idea of returning to the stand for trial after being elected President.
But he picked back up on Memorial Day by continuing his attacks on the judge in a series of tweets, calling him “unfair” and “Totally biased-hates Trump.” And on Thursday, Trump doubled down on his call for Curiel to step down — but this time Trump no longer was pretending that Curiel being “Mexican” was “fine.” Rather he stunningly told the Wall Street Journal that Curiel was disqualified from presiding over the case specifically due to his Latino heritage which Trump dubbed an “inherent conflict of interest” because, “I’m building a wall.” (Does this mean that given Trump’s inflammatory comments about women and Muslims, judges with those backgrounds are also disqualified?)
Hopefully, this case will finally go to trial in November — like Trump wanted — after six long years in the court system. It will give the plaintiffs, which include senior citizens who have made claims under California state law for “financial elder abuse,” a chance to make their case and if successful to be reimbursed for their losses. And here’s hoping that when that trial takes place, Trump is simply known as the former GOP nominee, not the President-elect.
(This article was updated with Donald Trump’s new comments Thursday on Judge Gonzalo Curiel.)
With Trump attack on 'Mexican' judge, has he hit a new low? (Opinion) #JHedzWorlD
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