Donald Trump’s Dangerous Attack on U.S. District Judge Gonzalo Curiel and the “Rigged” Federal Judiciary

May 27th, 2016

During his rally in San Diego, Donald Trump spent twelve minutes lambasting U.S. District Judge Gonzalo Curiel and Magistrate Judge William Gallo. His jaw-dropping comments reflect an utter ignorance about what judges do, and amounts to a dangerous attacks on the fairness of our court system. Whatever negligible good will he built up by nominating a list of solid potential nominees to the Supreme Court was squandered with this scurrilous attack. Those who defended his selection process should immediately rebuke him for these baseless insults.

The remarks began at 22:16. I’ve cleaned up the C-SPAN closed captioning so it makes it easier to follow along, but I encourage you to actually watch the video.

Does everybody have a little time? [cheers and applause] so I end up with a lawsuit, and it ends up in San Diego in federal court. It is a disgrace the way the federal court is acting, because it is a simple lawsuit. Everybody that took the so-called course. Trump University is in San Diego. The trial, they wanted it to start while I am running for president. The trial is going to take place sometime in November. There should be no trial. This should have been dismissed on summary judgment easily. Everybody says it, but I have a judge who is a hater of Donald trump. He’s a hater. His name is Gonzalo Curial. And he is not doing the right thing. I figure what the hell? Why not talk about it for two minutes. Should I talk about it? Yes? [cheers and applause] so we should have won. . . .

But I am getting railroaded by a legal system, and frankly they should be ashamed. I will be here in November. Hey, if I win as president, it is a civil case. I could have settled this case numerous times. But I don’t want to settle cases when we are right. I don’t believe in it. When you start settling cases, do you know what happens? Everybody sues you because you get known as a settler. One thing about me, I am not known as the settler. And people understand with this whole thing, with this whole deal with the lawyers, class action lawyers are the worst. It is a scam. Here is what happens. We are in front of a very hostile judge. The judge was appointed by by Barrack Obama – federal judge. [Boos]. Frankly he should recuse himself. He has given us ruling after ruling, negative, negative, negative. I have a top lawyer who said he has never seen anything like this before. So what happens is we get sued. We have a Magistrate named William Gallo who truly hates us. The good news is it is a jury trial. We can even get a fully jury. We are entitled to a jury, and we want a jury of 12 people. And you are going to watch. First of all, it should be dismissed. Watch how we win it was I have been treated unfairly. Very much like with the veterans, where I raised all that money, but on Tuesday I am announcing all of the groups we are giving almost $6 million to. You turn things around. Here is the story. We have a law firm named Robin Skeller. It is the spin-off of two law firms. Two of those partners went to jail for an extended period of time for doing very bad things legally. This same group is the lawyers against. So what happens is the judge, who happens to be, we believe Mexican, which is great. I think that is fine. You know what? I think the Mexicans are going to end up loving Donald Trump when I give all these jobs. I think they are going to love it. I think they are going to love me. . . .

A lot of people said before you run you should settle. I said I don’t care. The people understand it. And they use it. So when I have 10,000 people, and when we have mostly unbelievable reviews, how do you settle? And in fact, when the case started originally, I said how can I settle when I have a review like this? Now I should have settled, but I am glad I didn’t. I will be seeing you in November either as president. And I will say this. I have all these great reviews, but I will say this. I think Judge Curiel should be ashamed of himself. I think it is a disgrace he is doing this. I look forward to going before a jury, not this judge, and we will win that trial. We will win that trial. Check it out. Check it out, folks. You know, I tell this to people.  November 28. I think it is scheduled for. It should not be a trial. It should be a summary judgment dismissal. . . .

It is a disgrace. It is a rigged system. I had a rigged system, except we won by so much. This court system, the judges in this court system, federal court. They ought to look into Judge Curiel because what Judge Curiel is doing is a total disgrace. Ok? But we will come back in November. Wouldn’t that be wild if I am president and come back and do a civil case? Where everybody likes it. Ok. This is called life, folks. . . .

I am speechless. Absolutely, and totally speechless. I was highly critical of President Obama’s attacks on the Court. I cringe to think what will happen when the Supreme Court rules against him. I repeat everything I said here: Donald Trump is unqualified to be President.

Update: Yesterday, shortly after Trump’s speech, Judge Curiel issued a decision unsealing a “playbook” used by Trump University employees. The opinion referenced the fact that Trump “place the integrity off these court proceedings at issue.”

Update: Trump continues to tweet that Judge Curiel is biased against him.

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