Less than two months before he is sworn in as president, Donald Trump is due to testify to a jury in San Diego in a fraud suit by thousands of students who attended the real estate seminars once known as Trump University.

…Some appear to be the frivolous complaints commonly filed against celebrities, but most are serious — claims of libel, wrongful firings, harassment, and cases on both coasts alleging fraud in the promotion of the now-defunct Trump University.

…In addition to the lawsuits against him, Trump has threatened to sue a dozen women who have accused him of sexual assault and harassment after release of a 2005 video recording in which he boasted of grabbing women’s genitals with impunity.

…Daniel Petrocelli, Trump’s lead attorney, also asked to delay the trial to early next year, saying Trump needed time to work on the transition to the presidency.

…The student plaintiffs say they paid as much as $35,000 for courses on the secrets of successful real estate investing that proved to be little more than promotions for additional courses.

…Leading up to the trial, Trump’s lawyers have sought to prevent the jury from hearing incendiary statements from the presidential campaign, including Trump’s comments about Curiel, his remarks about women and his factually questionable assertions about subjects such as Mexican immigrants and celebrations of terrorist attacks.

..The judge also denied a request to bar testimony by David Lazarus, a Los Angeles Times business columnist, who wrote an unfavorable review of a Trump University preview session he attended in 2007 and wrote that Trump later tried to get him fired.

…Other pending lawsuits include a breach-of-contract claim a Trump company filed against two Washington, D.C., chefs who withdrew their plans for a restaurant at a Trump hotel after the candidate’s remarks about Mexican immigrants.

…Other suits allege that Trump’s campaign illegally sent unwanted text messages to cell phones and that his golf club in Florida fired an employee for claiming sexual harassment. 

Trump U. highlights a slew of lawsuits facing the president-elect – San Francisco Chronicle

‘Murica. Sigh….