Trump University judge unseals Donald Trump video testimony
The federal judge overseeing the lawsuits against Trump University unsealed video excerpts Wednesday of testimony from Donald Trump when he was deposed in the case.
It might take several days, however, until the actual video excerpts are released. The excerpts were released over the weekend in text form.
During the deposition last December, Trump was asked if he believes in playing to people's fantasies in terms of promotion.
"I believe in playing to people's desires, where they want to rent an apartment or buy an apartment or rent office space. I've never seen anybody say, 'Gee, my building's doing terribly -- why don't you rent an apartment?'" Trump said.
Trump was also asked if he could identify a single person who worked as a live events instructor at Trump University.
"You'd have to give me a list. You'd have to show me the list," he said.
Trump continued, "I would go and just walk in and just stand in the back of the room on occasion, just to see how they were doing." But "it's been so many years," he added, that he said he wouldn't be able to identify any of the live events instructors.
Trump was then given a list of names, but he said some of the names sounded familiar, but it was "too many years ago." After that, the interviewer asked him if he could recognize any of the instructors' faces and Trump said, "No. No, I don't."
The line of questioning stemmed from a claim Trump made in a promotional video that the "professors and adjunct professors that are absolutely terrific," and that "these are all people that are handpicked by me."
Here's the promotional video:
In the deposition, attorneys referred to testimony from Trump University president Michael Sexton, who told them, "'None of our instructors at the live events were handpicked by Donald Trump.'"
Asked about Sexton's statement, Trump said it was "correct," and added, "I looked at résumés and things, but I didn't pick the speakers."
He was even asked about whether Bill Clinton was a great president aside from his scandals.
"I mean, the scandals were devastating. He was impeached. He was impeached. He was brought before Congress. I mean, he was impeached," he said.
As CBS News reported in September, Trump University closed not because of litigation, but because students were not signing up for its Gold elite mentoring program that cost $35,000. The university, as a result, could no longer afford to fulfill its commitments to the students who had already paid.
A June 2010 memo from Trump University, which offered a series of real estate seminars, said the program was facing "significant operations risk" and it closed a month later. A former employee told CBS News that the program was "run into the ground." Lawsuits against Trump University were filed two to three years after the program shuttered.
Trump has come under fire in recent days for questioning whether U.S. District Judge Gonzalo Curiel can be impartial in the Trump University case because of his Mexican heritage.
CBS News' Laura Strickler contributed to this report.
