Reince Priebus: Trump "not admitting wrongdoing" in $25m fraud settlement
Reince Priebus, the Republican National Committee chair recently tapped for Donald Trump’s White House chief of staff, is defending the president-elect’s decision to settle a $25 million fraud lawsuit aimed at Trump University, saying Sunday that Mr. Trump wanted to begin leading the country “without distraction.”
“When the presidency hits you, and it’s at your front door, and you realize that you’re president of the United States for all Americans, there are some things that are important to you and some things that you just decide, look, let’s move on,” Priebus told CNN’s “State of the Union.”
“We’re not admitting wrongdoing,” he went on. “Let’s just start leading this country without distraction. That’s what you’re seeing.”
Priebus pushed the need to see the fraud settlement in a “positive” light: “I think that Americans should look at this as a real positive sign about what kind of great president he is going to be and how he wants to lead this country.”
Settling the now-defunct Trump University lawsuit, filed by about 7,000 people, comes with a hefty fine for the president-elect.
“Every victim will receive restitution,” New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman said in a statement Friday, “and that Donald Trump will pay up to $1 million in penalties to the State of New York for violating state education laws.”
Trump, who had already spent a significant amount of his own fortune on his White House bid, weighed in on the fraud case Saturday via Twitter, saying he wanted to “focus on our country” but that he would have had a “winning trial” if he hadn’t chosen to settle.
I settled the Trump University lawsuit for a small fraction of the potential award because as President I have to focus on our country.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 19, 2016
The ONLY bad thing about winning the Presidency is that I did not have the time to go through a long but winning trial on Trump U. Too bad!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 19, 2016
The Trump University case isn’t the only ethical controversy to rock the presidential transition this week. Even after numerous promises that he would turn over his business empire to his children -- and that they would not, in turn, consult with him -- Mr. Trump continues to take actions directly contradicting the pledged separation of his businesses from the presidency.
Last week, Mr. Trump met with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and had his daughter Ivanka, who is currently an executive at the Trump Organization, attend the gathering. And despite his expressed desires to “focus on our country,” the president-elect also huddled with Indian business partners working on a luxury apartment complex south of Mumbai branded with the Trump name, according to media reports.
Priebus denied on CNN that there were any conflicts of interest with the president-elect.
“Donald Trump has been very clear from the very beginning that his family is very important to him,” the future chief of staff said. “I think that while it’s unique, it’s certainly compliant with the law. And, obviously, we will comply with all of those laws, and we will have our White House counsel review all of these things, and we will have every ‘I’ dotted and every ‘T’ crossed, and I can assure the American people that there wouldn’t be any wrongdoing, or any sort of undue influence over any decision-making.”
On CBS’ “Face the Nation,” vice president-elect Mike Pence made a similar argument, saying he was “very confident that the president-elect and his extraordinary talented family are going to work with the best legal minds in this country and create the proper separation from their business enterprise.”