Judge Orders Release of Trump U. Sales ‘Playbooks’ and Other Documents

A federal judge in California overseeing a long-running class-action lawsuit against Donald Trump’s defunct Trump University ruled on Friday afternoon that 1,000 pages of internal company documents, including playbooks used by salespeople, must be released by June 2. The ruling came in response to a request filed by The Washington Post.

In his order, Judge Gonzalo P. Curiel of the U.S. District Court in San Diego said public interest in Mr. Trump as a presidential candidate justified release of documents about the venture’s online offerings, which purported to teach students how to make money in the real-estate business. The judge said he saw no evidence supporting the company’s claims that the material had commercial value because the venture might reopen.

He also said the documents’ release was justified because Mr. Trump had “placed the integrity of these court proceedings at issue.” The day the judge issued his order, but before it became public, Mr. Trump talked at some length about the case during a rally in San Diego in which he described Judge Curiel as a Trump “hater” who “happens to be, we believe, Mexican.” According to a Wikipedia biography, the judge was born in Indiana.

The lawsuit, one of three challenging Trump University’s business practices, is set to go to trial in late November.