About the Fraud Charges Against Donald Trump and His Trump University

Donald Trump is facing three separate lawsuits -- two class action suits filed in California and one filed by New York's attorney general. They concern a real estate education program that operated, between 2005 and 2010, under the name, Trump University, that took in an estimated $40 million.

Marco Rubio brought the suits up in last night's debate.

Here is what you need to know:

First, these are civil fraud charges, not criminal charges, In this day and age anyone can bring a civil fraud charge for just about any reason. 

Second, the courses offered appeared to be pretty decent. Like anything else, time and effort would be required  to succeed after taking the courses. You weren't going to become a billionaire just by taking the course. but the course did provide the tools  for someone who worked at it to succeed in real estate.

In 2013, long before Donald Trump announced his candidacy for the Republican nomination, New York's attorney general, Eric Schneiderman, brought the first suit. I discussed the merits of the suit at that time in a post, In Defense of Donald Trump.

-RW