Judge Orders Trump University Documents Released to Public

Timing is everything, huh?

A few days after a State Department audit proved to the country that Hillary Clinton had violated federal rules, endangered national security, and lied to the American people about it, a judge has ordered the public release of more than 1,000 pages of documents relating to Trump University.

U.S. District Judge Gonzalo Curiel, who is presiding over a class-action lawsuit against Donald Trump in relation to the controversial school, ruled this week that Trump University internal documents must be handed over to the public. Responding to a request from The Washington Post, Curiel agreed to release the documents to protect “the integrity of these court proceedings.”

Gee, why was that integrity in question?

Well, Trump has mentioned on occasion that Curiel, who is Hispanic, could be politically motivated by a disdain for his immigration proposals.

“I think Judge Curiel should be ashamed of himself,” Trump said Friday. “I think it’s a disgrace that he is doing this.”

There’s no specific indication that Curiel has done anything to betray the public trust, but you can’t help but wonder about the timing of all this. To his credit, Curiel has pushed the trial date back to November 28. He had originally scheduled the trial to begin in June, but Trump’s primary success convinced him to reschedule.

Still, no unbiased judge could possibly be confused about the potential political fallout of such a release.

According to the plaintiffs, Trump University failed to provide students with the education promised them at the outset. For his part, Trump says that a 98-percent customer satisfaction rate should be enough to show the lawsuit is without merit.

But no matter the outcome, Trump isn’t going to jail. The same cannot be said of Hillary Clinton. Her worst-case-scenario (as unlikely as it may be to come to fruition) is a prison cell. Trump’s worst-case-scenario is…he’ll be out some dough. That’s not quite equivalent.

It doesn’t mean that Trump did nothing wrong, of course. Maybe he did. Maybe the documents will make that absolutely clear. Okay. We’ll see. Liking Trump – even loving Trump – doesn’t mean we have to bury our heads in the sand. Already, most Trump supporters have acknowledged to themselves that there are certain aspects of his temperament, lifestyle, and politics that aren’t ideal.

But they are gladly willing to look past his faults if it means putting this country back together again. It’s hard to imagine there will be anything in this release that will change that.