Hot-Mic Video: What Trump Told His Lawyer When He Didn’t Know a Camera Was Rolling

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https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2020/08/new-hot-mic-video-what-trump-told-his-lawyer-when-he-didnt-know-a-camera-was-rolling/

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New Hot-Mic Video: What Trump Told His Lawyer When He Didn’t Know a Camera Was Rolling
The revealing footage was shot during a deposition in the Trump University fraud case.

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  DAVID CORN
  Washington, DC, Bureau ChiefBio | Follow
  

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On December 10, 2015, Donald Trump took time off from campaigning for the Republican presidential nomination to spend hours sitting for a videotaped deposition in a lawsuit alleging that he and Trump University had defrauded people who had plunked down thousands of dollars to learn the secrets of his financial success as a developer. During a break in the proceedings, the camera continued to roll. And Trump and his attorney, Daniel Petrocelli, apparently unaware they were being recorded, were captured discussing the case.

In this 13-minute hot-mic video—a copy of which was provided to Mother Jones—Trump boasted about how his company threatened the Better Business Bureau to change the D rating it had assigned Trump University to an A. He complained about the federal judge overseeing the suit, Gonzalo Curiel, elliptically talking about how to challenge him and referring to “the Spanish thing.” Trump also griped that he had been sued personally in this case, and Petrocelli had to explain to Trump that he, not just Trump University itself, was in the legal crosshairs because Trump had been accused of making false statements to promote the venture. And Petrocelli pointed out that the case was not a lock for Trump because some of Trump’s “guys” had been “sloppy.”

This tape shows Trump in the wild, trying to figure out how to contend with a judge who he believed was not on his side (perhaps with the use of a racist attack), bragging about pressuring a group that had given his business a low rating, and grousing that he was being held personally responsible for a Trump enterprise accused of scamming people. 





VIDEO
Hot-mic video catches Donald Trump during a 2015 deposition:


During the 2016 campaign, Trump had to contend with three lawsuits accusing him and Trump University—which was not an accredited as a university—of hoodwinking students who had paid between $1,495 and $34,995 for real estate seminars. Trump, who had personally promoted this endeavor and vouched for the instructors (“handpicked by me”), vowed that he would never settle the cases, and he succeeded in pushing the trial until after Election Day. Shortly after the election, Trump settled the lawsuits, agreeing to pay $25 million without admitting wrongdoing. 

The entire 2015 deposition was videotaped, and Curiel granted Trump’s request to seal the videotape of the deposition; only a written transcript was made public. Trump and Petrocelli seemingly did not realize that a camera was still on while they talked during this break in the question-and-answer session.

Art Cohen, the lead plaintiff in one of two Trump University class-action lawsuits, gave a copy of this recording to Mother Jones. “I wanted to get this out before the election so people better understand how Trump behaves behind the scenes,” Cohen says. “Staying quiet all this time has been frustrating for me, and I wish everybody had gotten the chance to see Trump’s behavior as I did before the 2016 election. With 20/20 vision, we now have the opportunity to better understand his true nature and the gangster persona he shows in this video.” Cohen maintains that Trump’s ability to avoid a trial during the campaign cleared a major political obstacle for him, and he adds, “The Trump University legal saga is a footnote to history, but it helped Trump hone his blueprint for attacking the judiciary by publicly berating judges he deems adversarial.”

Mother Jones sent Petrocelli a list of questions about the conversation, which took place with several other people in the room. In response, Martin Checov, the general counsel of O’Melveny & Myers—the law firm where Petrocelli practices—sent a letter to Mother Jones, “on behalf of Trump University and President Donald J. Trump,” demanding that Mother Jones “not publish the video or any article relating to it and immediately destroy the video.”