[Hoot Gibson]

Trump's career as a crony capitalist offers Democrats a treasure trove of video, audio, and written statements that cast Trump in the worst possible light. What a shame that Republicans passed over 16 better qualified and more ethical candidates to nominate a total clown with decades of potentially devastating baggage.

Lawyers in Trump University case seek maximum political pain

Legal fight is escalating over potential release of real estate mogul's deposition videos.

A battle is escalating over the potential release of videos of Donald Trump dodging and weaving during depositions in the Trump University case, footage that could make its way into attack ads aimed at the Republican White House hopeful.

The plaintiffs’ attorneys in two class-action lawsuits are pressuring U.S. District Court Judge Gonzalo Curiel — the target of Trump’s racially charged attacks — to take steps that could make public four dozen video clips of Trump being pressed on whether his real estate seminar business was a sprawling scam, as well as his thoughts on the 2016 political race.
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It’s just one of a series of tactics that the attorneys are using to exploit Trump’s pursuit for the highest office in the United States as they seek to maximize the political pain for Trump — and the strategic gain for their clients.

Trump has denied accusations that Trump University students were ripped off, and he has painted the legal assault as part of a politically motivated campaign to damage his presidential ambitions. He has noted that Robbins Geller Rudman & Dowd, the major class-action law firm involved, has long ties to presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton and her husband, former President Bill Clinton, paying them $675,000 for speeches in recent years. Attorneys at the firm have also been generous donors to the Clintons' campaigns.

However, legal experts say the plaintiffs' lawyers' approach in the long-running litigation seems less driven by political loyalties and more by opportunism — a chance to capitalize on Trump's predicament to try to force him into a financial settlement far more costly than would have been on the table before his improbable political ascent.

"They might have been willing to accept a settlement of 'X' dollars before, but Trump appeared unwilling to settle," said University of Chicago law professor David Zarfes. "Now, it would probably be '2X' or '3X' or '4X.' They have him in a very difficult, tenuous situation. It's unfortunate for him."
Stephen Gillers, a legal ethics professor at New York University, said the strategy by the plaintiffs’ attorneys would usually be unremarkable, but that Trump’s stature puts the case in a different league.

"It's how lawyers litigate, although the leverage is not generally focused on political circumstances,” he said. “Trump always has recourse to the magistrate judge or the district court if he thinks the strategy, the timing or the deadlines are abusive."

While Trump has not signaled any openness to a settlement — even falsely claiming that he never settles cases — the Trump University case has in recent days almost swallowed up his campaign, with Clinton accusing Trump of swindling everyday Americans and Republicans distancing themselves from him over his claims that the Indiana-born Curiel cannot be impartial because he’s “Mexican.”