Donald Trump agrees to release additional Trump U deposition documents
Parts of deposition transcripts from two civil suits against Trump University are now clear for public dissemination, according to a statement from his lawyers.
Trump had originally opposed their release, but his attorneys, Daniel Petrocelli, David Kirman and Jill Martin submitted a filing okaying their release to U.S. District Court Judge Gonzalo Curiel. In recent weeks, Trump has accused Curiel of bias because of his Mexican heritage.
The filing would allow three pages spanning two depositions mostly dealing with financial figures to be made public.
Trump's attorneys, are not, however, willing to release video of the deposition as requested in a Media Interveners' Motion.
In Monday's filing, Trump's attorneys reiterated that public disclosure of the deposition video "serves only to harass and unfairly prejudice Mr. Trump."
"The video files Media Interveners seek are duplicative of the deposition transcripts of Mr. Trump's testimony, none of which remains designated 'Confidential,'" Monday's filing stated.
Last Wednesday, even though most of the video excerpts in text form had been released, Trump's attorneys filed a motion to Judge Curiel to block the actual clips of the deposition videos from being made public in an effort to protect Trump from them winding up in political advertisements.
Last week's motion argued that once the deposition videos are used for political advertisements, they would muddy a jury pool and could potentially harbor prejudice.
"Undoubtedly, these videos...will be used by the media and others in connection with the presidential campaign," lawyers for Trump said in the motion.
"The need to prevent such 'sensationalism' is particularly acute here because of Mr. Trump's unique circumstances in running for President of the United States," the motion added.
A hearing on whether or not to release the videos of the deposition won't happen until July 13 according to court documents because of a scheduling with Trump's attorneys.
The three depositions transcriptions have not been released and no date has yet been set.