American real-estate tycoon Donald Trump reacted with rage to a lawsuit
lodged against the self-styled Trump University on Monday, branding New
York's top prosecutor "a total sleazebag."
On Twitter and in a series of blazing television interviews, Trump hit out at
New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman's "pathetic lawsuit" against
him, which claims his business school was an elaborate scam.
In a string of angry Tweets, Trump referred to the attorney general as
"dopey", "very stupid and ineffective" and "a total failure in office."
Schneiderman announced on Sunday he was suing the star of "The
Apprentice" television show for allegedly swindling people into paying hefty
fees at his Trump University to learn his investing techniques.
"More than 5,000 people across the country who paid Donald Trump $40
million to teach them his hard sell tactics got a hard lesson in bait-and-
switch," Schneiderman said in a statement.
"Mr. Trump used his celebrity status and personally appeared in commercials
making false promises to convince people to spend tens of thousands of
dollars they couldn't afford for lessons they never got."
Trump -- who made his fortune in real-estate -- has become known for
his Twitter tirades, many of which are scathing attacks on the Obama
administration.
The billionaire magnate on Monday accused Schneiderman of soliciting him
for campaign funds and seeking publicity.
On Fox and Friends he called Schneiderman a "political hack", and on the
Today show, a "total lightweight."
"During the investigation, he was asking people in my firm, including one of
my lawyers, for campaign contributions," Trump told the Today show.
"Who ever heard of this? He's asking for campaign contributions while he's
looking into Trump. I mean what kind of an attorney general is this?"
Schneiderman accused Trump of misrepresenting the course offered,
promising students would learn from hand-picked experts and "just copy
exactly what I've done and get rich."
He said in the statement that Trump had not chosen any of the instructors
and had very little or no role in developing content for the course.
"Instead of a personal appearance from Donald Trump as some consumers
were led to expect, some participants got their photographs taken with a
life-size photo of Mr. Trump."
Trump University, which opened in 2005, was also unlicensed to operate in
the state of New York, according to Schneiderman.
Students signed up for a $1,495 three-day seminar during which they were
promised they would learn everything they needed to know to become
successful real estate investors.
Schneiderman said these promises went unfulfilled and the seminars were
used to pitch consumers an expensive Trump Elite mentoring program
costing $10,000 to $35,000.
Many of the students who took the course, had been unable to conclude
even a single real estate deal, the attorney general said.
In an interview with CNN, Trump said his university had a 98 percent
approval rating.
"People loved the school. The school was terrific. And we got sued for lots
of different reasons, primarily, once again, publicity," Trump said.
Furious, Trump set up a website, 98percentapproval.com, to defend against
the claims by Schneiderman, whom he accuses of "gross incompetence" and
wasting taxpayer's money in a "no holds barred, scorched earth
investigation" against him.
Source : yahoo news
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