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ALEXIS CHRISTOPHOROUS: Hi, I'm Alexis Christophorous.
Though he's aiming to take the presidential stand in November,
Donald Trump is expected to take the witness stand even sooner
in a case against the now-defunct Trump University,
where he's accused of financial fraud.
Yesterday, Trump said he may ask the federal judge overseeing
the trial to recuse himself because he is Hispanic, and is
therefore biased against him due to Trump's plan
to build a wall to keep out immigrants from Mexico.
I'm joined by Yahoo News Chief Investigative Correspondent
Michael Isikoff.
And Michael, let's start at the beginning, shall we?
Why are former students suing Trump University?
MICHAEL ISIKOFF: Well, Trump University was basically
a business venture that Donald Trump started
in 2005 with promotional videos saying, enroll in my courses
and I will teach you how to make a killing in the real estate
market.
Now, these courses were really hotel ballroom seminars,
and then you could graduate and become a gold member
and get mentoring, as it were, from Trump's supposedly
handpicked experts.
Now, a number of students that have gone through these courses
have complained and have filed lawsuits
saying this was a scam.
The ballroom seminars were little more
than an infomercial.
Trump's so-called experts were not handpicked by him at all
and had little expertise in the real estate industry,
and basically that they were left high and dry
by their enrollment in Trump University, which cost many
of them upwards of $36,000.
Now, Trump denies these claims, says he has a 98%
approval rating.
But what's significant here is there
are three outstanding lawsuits, two
before a federal judge in San Diego, California,
and he has moved these cases forward,
denied motions by Trump's lawyers to dismiss them,
and so there is a case that is headed for trial on this.
ALEXIS CHRISTOPHOROUS: And do you
think Trump can actually be forced to testify in this case?
MICHAEL ISIKOFF: Well, it's very hard
to see how he could not testify.
He is listed on the witness list by both the plaintiffs
and the defendants to appear at trial.
Actually, he's already testified in
a closed-door, sealed deposition,
which I discovered in the court files, overlooked by everybody
else, on December 10 of last year,
a day he was making international headlines
about his proposal to ban Muslims from the United States.
He was actually undergoing a grilling
from the plaintiff's lawyers in a sealed deposition.
So if this case doesn't settle-- and Trump said yesterday
on "Meet the Press" he has no intention
of settling-- this case is going to trial
late spring, early summer, and Donald Trump
will almost certainly be on the witness stand.
ALEXIS CHRISTOPHOROUS: Just in time for the presidential race,
right?
MICHAEL ISIKOFF: Exactly.
And I should say something about his comments
about the federal judge.
The judge in question, Gonzalo Curiel,
has been on the bench for about four or five years now.
He's a former federal prosecutor.
He was born and raised in Indiana,
went to Indiana University Law School.
And Trump said he's biased against him
because he's Hispanic, and therefore he
may ask for his recusal.
Well, the idea that a Hispanic-American federal judge
could not sit on a case because of his ethnicity
is a fairly outrageous comment that's
gotten not as much attention as it probably should.
Basically, what Trump is saying is
this judge has been ruling against him,
and because of his ethnicity he ought to recuse himself.
Imagine if it was an African-American
or a Jewish-American or an Italian-American.
I think there'd be an outcry.
ALEXIS CHRISTOPHOROUS: Michael Isikoff,
thanks so much for being with us.
And stay with "Yahoo News" for more as this story develops.