New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman also sued Trump’s namesake school for operating without a license and misleading students, a case that Trump is now seeking to dismiss. In another case, Schneiderman issued a cease-and-desist order this year over the Trump Foundation’s failure to properly as a charity under state law. Amy Spitalnick, a spokeswoman for the attorney general, said lawyers in her office are scheduled to introduce their opening brief in appellate court Dec. 5. She declined to comment on the Trump Foundation, saying it was an ongoing investigation.
Then there are suits with former members of Trump’s Florida golf course, who demanded a refund; two celebrity chefs who pulled out of one of his hotel projects after the candidate made disparaging remarks about Mexicans; and Palm Beach County, which Trump says set up a flight path to send noisy planes over his private club, Mar-A-Lago.
While the White House may be able to keep Trump off the witness stand, he can’t expect immunity from lawsuits. Clinton’s legal problems paved the way for presidents to face lawsuits while in office. Clinton was sued in 1994 by Paula Jones, who claimed he sexually harassed her when he was governor of Arkansas. Clinton urged the U.S. Supreme Court to delay the case, but the justices disagreed.
"The Supreme Court ruled that there is no categorical prohibition of a civil suit going forward while the president was still in office,” said Samuel Issacharoff, who also teaches law at NYU. “The idea that one can tie up a sitting president, who has responsibility for national security and everything else, in a civil suit is rather disturbing.”
Clinton’s lawyer in the Jones case, Robert Bennett, said the judge in the San Diego Trump University trial -- and a related racketeering case -- is unlikely to order Trump to testify after giving two depositions. Trump accused the judge during the campaign of being biased against him because of his Mexican-American heritage.
“There’s an excellent chance that the judge would say you’ve had two bites at the apple, and that’s enough,” Bennett said.
Bennett also suggested that Trump abandon his pledge to sue the women for accusing him of sexual misconduct.
“My advice would be, ‘You’re the president of the United States now, why don’t you move on?”’ Bennett said. “It wouldn’t look good to use your position of enormous power to go after a woman who probably doesn’t have money anyway. Common sense would say let it go.”
This article was provided by Bloomberg News.