REVEALED: Trump’s hidden video deposition in Trump University fraud case

a few weeks ago we released hot mic video of donald trump taken during a break in his 2015 deposition in the federal lawsuit accusing him and trump university of fraud now we have the full video of the entire deposition which was originally sealed under court order during the 2016 campaign this is video trump didn't want you to see here are non-revealing clips of trump doing what he often does running away from or distorting the truth you can watch how he refuses to call false statements false and how he says he can't remember saying that he had one of the world's best memories for my full analysis of each clip visit motherjones.com deposition now do you uh feel that your attention to details has kept your memory sharp well you've described it as being better than good right it's good i have a good memory well you described it as being one of the all-time great memories right have a good memory well do you remember that you're do you remember saying that you have one of the all-time great memories yeah i said that and and do you believe that's true the ultimate i have a very good memory yes do you believe you have one of the best memories in the world that i can't tell you i can't talk for other people but i have a good memory well you've stated though that you have one of the best memories in the world i don't know did i use those that expression yes where could i see i can i can play a video of you of a reporter reporting did i say have a great memory or one of the best in the world one of the best in the world what was what the reported quote reported you said i don't know i mean i don't remember that okay as good as my memory is i don't remember that but i have a good memory so you don't remember saying you have one of the best memories i don't remember that okay i have i know i remember you telling me but i don't know that i said it do you recall saying do you have one of the all-time great memories i think that was the expression i used can you stay in mind yeah i have a great memory i have a very good memory what's the question the question is this individual i'm saying here can you tell me whether this person is student live events instructor or neither um johnny harris too many years and gosling too many years mike dugan it sounds very familiar names the names sound familiar just too many years darren liebman its name sounds familiar but it's too many years johnny berkins i don't i don't know johnny horton too many years tim voss again uh you can go through this whole list and i'm sure you'd like to so you can take us for a long time but these are some of those names sound familiar to me but it's too many years ago chris goss can you go through all this the names you're the one who said give me a list you want to show it to right you want to show them i'm going through the name if you want supposing you show it to me i can save you a lot of time i'll go through the list we left off with chris goss instructors i would have known the instructors much more so than the students we we have we'll have a lot of students testifying but we have uh but as far as that list is concerned um i would i would have the names familiar it's just two and when you say that list we don't have any documents i don't even know what let's try reading from i'm just saying i'm just the lawyer is i'm just reading from a piece of paper you have a document excuse me that has not been put in front of you the record will reflect that and and the testimony will be evaluated in light of his refusal to let you see a list or represent what the list means so just answer his questions and we'll take it from there next question please ken berry how many years james webb i don't remember the names i don't remember the name it's cast so many years too many years white casper many years terry martin some of the names by the way sound familiar but too many years to know where they are all lucas same thing terry lucas say man sir mike peterson saint matthew troy peterson saint mancy chris gillan same answer steve gilpin same answer scott miller same man soon steve miller we're going to do this all day the same answer same answer derek mcnulty same answer rick mcnally how many more do you have how many more names you have mr trump you're the one who wants to get through this quickly just answer the questions and we'll get through it quickly you know you're not going to get anything through quickly you don't want to get anything through quickly same answer gary stanton same answer johnny berkins same answer gerald martin samantha crystal of france sam answer steve goff say man soon james webb same answer to your harassment questions chris lombardo same answer to your harassment questions keith holly same answer keith sperry same answer howard bell same answer howard hall the same man soon bob sarah same answer bob stephen say man soon jerry answer joe lahore say man soon steve gilbert st manson james christ same man soon alex christ same answer mike weber same answer i'm sex the same answer um well you know i know the name but what but same answer could you repeat the question just so he has it in mind i i heard the question do you know whether he's a that was a live events instructor a student or neither i remember the name but i'd have it just many years ago and i have to check the facts gary stanton's name answer gary stanton and then gary sturgeon s-t-u-r-g-e-o-n so construct for me a scenario and we did have a lot of very good instructions i mean you can always find somebody that maybe is not so good or comfortable can you can you name for me one good live events instructor uh i don't know do you know a single good live events instructor asked and answered do you am i supposed to answer that you've answered it all i can say is it again many years ago flip to the next page which is one zero two nine two you refer in about the one third of the way down i'm going to give you two hours of access to one of my amazing instructors do you see that yes the same date these are the this is a different date different location different ad again you don't have any idea what the qualifications were of those instructors correct i just said good good people i wanted good people and i did i told you i saw resumes you would want a good people but you have no idea what the actual qualifications were correct i hear we had some great instructors but i'm asking you do you have any personal knowledge as to what the qualifications they had to be good i wanted good instructors i know what you wanted i'm asking is do you have any personal knowledge that they were in fact good i've heard good things my only knowledge is this i've heard good things and this is when john carl's asking you about your past praise for uh certain individuals the first one he mentions is your past praise of jeb bush of whom you said he is exactly the kind of political leader this country needs now when when was his what year was this is this year oh no i'm sorry this is this interview is this year the quote he's referring to is three years past from years past yeah well that's right okay fine he is exactly the kind of political leader this country needs now and we very much need in the future but when was the quote how many years ago we'll get to that he's bright tough in principle okay and mr carl was honestly and not just jeb bush of hillary clinton you said just in 2012 can i ask you a question what's what's the relevance of this i'll get to it don't answer any questions she's a terrific person who works hard and i think she does a good job george pataki you said was the most underrated guy in american politics rick perry you said is a very effective governor texas is like lucky to have him and then mr carolina say now you've declared you've declared hillary the worst secretary of state ever pataki the worst governor of new york ever and you said rick perry is too dumb maybe to be in the debate and your response to all that was the very simple answer to that i was a businessman all my life i've made a tremendous fortune i had to deal with politicians and i would contribute to them and i would deal with them and certainly i'm not going to say bad things about people because i needed their support to get projects done i needed their support for lots of things or i may have needed their support put another way i mean you're not going to say horrible things and then go in a year later and say listen can i have your support for this project or this development or this business so i say nice about almost everybody and i contributed to people because i was a smart businessman i i've built a tremendous company and i did that based on relationships is that this response you gave an accurate explanation for why you had said nice things about these folks in the past and now are expressing different views i don't think i should have to answer this i think this is so far off it's just a filibuster that's what you do it's not a philosophy it's a film investor what does this have to do with what you're doing here what i'm getting at is you said your explanation here that you had a business reason for complimenting these folks in the past correct i'm struck i don't think i should respond to this guy time out i'm instructing you i don't think it has anything remotely to do with the case please let's just go to court and get this case i'm dying to go to court on this case trump you've referenced a number of times your belief that students had praise for trump university correct you can answer that question yeah they have great praise for communities and you have yourself praised people in the past because you felt that was necessary to get their help correct supposed to answer that question no you don't have to answer if it has anything to do with exhibit 489 you're not allowed to answer it what would have to do with 489 or not you have given praise to people in the past because you thought you might need their help correct if if it doesn't have to do with this it's a different question i think unrelated to exhibit 1489 if you can answer the question the question is vague and ambiguous have you given praise to people in the past and because you felt you might need their help for a deal in the future and it's incomplete yeah uh i think that generally i like to be as positive about people as i can and how generally i like and have you given praise for that reason even when you didn't sincerely believe the praise um question is vaguely ambiguous i mean do you have a specific instance yeah i do not this no it's ridiculous at this these are your words but it's it's a whole different world so sorry get it rolling from the judge it's all right go get a ruling from the judge you asked me for a specific instance okay so i'm going to give you one if you don't need a specific sentence that pertains to what we're talking about what i'm asking you is have you in the past you've been praised to someone because you may need their help for a deal even though you did not sincerely believe the praise you gave them first of all that's totally different from our lawsuit okay that's a totally different thing these people have given tremendous praise many of them have given tremendous praise for the course so that's totally different from what you're talking about um and almost everyone has signed a document etc etc i so look forward to having this case go to court i've been waiting for it for a long time well you're delaying this definition i don't mind doing dan the question was as opposed to mr trump did you have you in the past given praise to someone because you thought you may need their help in business later on even though you didn't sincerely believe the praise you were giving them do any situations come to mind no situation comes to mind no so and you won't answer the question as to pertaining to jeb bush i won't allow him to answer the politics and you will not answer the question as to hillary clinton correct and you will not answer the questions to george paton correct and you will not answer the questions rick perry correct so you don't know if you've done that in the past uh you'd have to give me a specific instance i mean you're asking other than the four you gave me no no you'd have to give one you would have to give me a specific instance i'm giving you this position having to do his business give me the business give me a business instance mr trump you referred to mr pataki as the most underrated guy in american politics correct please don't answer the question i've instructed you not to answer please move on jason referencing your book the america we deserve mr trump does exhibit 490 appear to be an accurate copy of portions of that book yes okay um if you look at the you among other things in this book you take the education industry to task correct i think what and the education industry is a task correct well i wrote it uh 16 years ago so like you know i i talked about education i think but i read it a long time ago okay if you look at the second page of the exhibit itself which is page two yes page 156 of the ebook version of this you you wrote you wrote this book right yeah i did education industry is delivering less for more money and claiming no for no ground has been lost it's fraud pure and simple yeah so would you agree that when educators deliver less than promised for more money and claim they're doing something great it's fraud pure and simple question calls for improper opinion testimony incomplete hypothetical relaxed foundation vague and ambiguous you can answer subject to those objections um the education is living in this room let the record reflect that um again you presented him with um page 156 and i had really no context right i'd really rather i'd like to read you know the entire chapter before i answer that question do you have the rest of it without reading the entire chapter of your own book you can't answer the question as to whether or not when educators deliver less than promised for more money and claim they're doing something great it's fraud pure and simple you can answer that question whether or not you need to read the whole uh chapter in order to answer the question i i would say it's it's no it's not fraud okay that's not true so the statement in your book is not accurate it's uh apparently get a point across so it's not accurate it's not accurate yeah it's trying to get a point across using an inaccurate using it well it's time to get a point across i'm trying to education is very important to me i'm trying to get a point across and the plan i'm trying to get across was what that education has gotten out of control and that uh ideally something has to be done about it so the the fact that it was fraud pure and simple was just thrown in there no it's just i'm trying to make a point and it's not fraud but it's it's i'm trying to make a point as strongly as possible up to you i'm going to direct your attention exhibit 493 uh contains excerpts of mr sexton's testimony in this case the cohen case if you could please turn to page 261 of his testimony and i'll represent to you that this question these questions are referring to that same script that you had in your hand which is exhibit 492. and the question opposed to him was you knew when you were sending this where is that i'm sorry page oh i see number six okay yes there you go line six you knew when you were sending the script that you were sending it to individuals that had not in fact had dinner with mr trump correct answer that's correct did you knew a question and you knew that mr trump had not said anything to them over dinner correct answer that's correct sending a script to instructors that contained a misrepresentation about having had dinner with you and discussed real estate with you over dinner do you believe mr trump that set a good example or a bad example for the instruction well i think it's hyperbole probably and you know i mean i think it's uh not particularly important but i think it's hyperbole and object to the question is calling for improper opinion testimony so is that the kind of thing you consider to be an innocent exaggeration that's same same objections yeah i'd say that's an innocent exaggeration yes so i if the instructors are trying to basically convince the students that they have a close relationship with you and that's that's part of the pitch is that they have such a close relationship with you that you actually have dinner and talk real estate with them and that's you believe is innocent exaggeration same objections i would say it's hyperbole you know i would really say it's um yeah i think that's probably the word for it a lot of people say they met with me and they were with me and all of this stuff i mean i have it all the time i think it's hyperbole but you can in this context of talking to prospective students people who might pay to be instructed by these folks you consider that to be uh innocent exact same objections i don't know people love the courses i just don't know but but i would say it's innocent hyper i believe and i probably in this context is the same thing as saying something's not accurate right objection it depends on how you're talking about accurate but i would say that um this thing like that's very innocent i can see a lot of people but again you're talking about something that's not something's false um well i didn't have dinner with him i could see it being hyperbole i could see it being something that somebody would say okay but but hyperbole in this context again you might say tonight that we have dinner together yeah it would be false for me to say that you and i had breakfast together this morning right yeah sort of false it would depend on how you meant it how you said it but uh yeah it would be false is there it said we sort of had lunch together is there any way i could no i i think it i think it's a statement of hyperbole it's not the big deal the big thing is how how well they taught again i'm focusing on this it's these are false statements that mr this is a false statement that these folks had dinner with you when they did not correct i think it's hyperbole that's what i think it is i think it's you know i think the important thing is the uh the level of instruction i think it's innocent hype i believe maybe he's trying to make a point i don't know but um i didn't have dinner with him but i think it's innocent and okay this is line seven and again you were just following what you were told to say in this recording right that donald trump had personally picked you answer that's correct and just to follow up you've you've never met trump right answer no question so it's not true that he picked you there's an objection uh answer yeah it's true he didn't pick me no see that mr trump yeah well that's different than what 178 says right because 178 he was he's saying that because it's michael sexton he's you know michael sexton was my arm so you know he was saying that michael sexton picks me that's that's you know similar thing so it's a very different kind of a uh um question you'd be asking me you agree with me that michael sexton doing something is not the same as you personally do that correct no i don't agree with that objection okay so if michael sexton is brushing his teeth right now is that the same thing as you brushing your teeth right now it's in improper hypothetical you can answer um michael sexton i assume picked him and michael sexton's my representative so he assumed that i was handed that i picked him i mean michael michael sexton is my representative i don't hire most of the people in the trump organization but i hire them through people that work for me so michael sexton was my representative my personal representative he picked him and that's what he said in 78 178. but he also said you did not personally pick him well the witness said that right and he also said no i didn't pick i'm not saying i did pick him right you're exactly that's what i'm giving you you did not personally pick him correct i'm not saying i picked him up but michael saxon picked him and michael sexton is my arm but you did not he said he never met you he did not meet him correct i don't think so okay and you did not personally pick him correct uh mr no i don't think so okay did you authorize mr goff to represent the students that you donald trump had personally picked him no i never met him okay is that the kind is that the level of candor to falsely represent the students that you had personally picked him this is that the level of candor you expected from the instructors at trump university it assumes facts not in evidence is argumentative and calls for improper opinion testimony can answer my representative hand picked him he was my he was my top executive and that's that's all i know i mean i haven't heard this but my representative picked him and i assume he's because based on what he said in 178 my representative picked him so that's all i can say but you agree i didn't pick up myself but you acknowledge though sir that it's it is a false statement for mr goff to say donald trump personally picked me object to the question is calling for improper opinion testimony and um assumes facts not in evidence and misstates the record you can answer well i guess he's saying i picked him through my representative i mean i assume that's what he meant well that's not what he said he said donald trump his testimony is in the record it speaks for itself and it goes beyond the one excerpt you identify and what i'm asking you is you heard what he represented the students that donald trump personally picked me is that true or for my representative my number one my top person picked him okay not you no it wasn't me but a lot of people would consider that to be an offshoot of me um you weren't steve buff's partner were you you picked i wasn't who you weren't steve goff's partner were your questions you know you didn't talk to steve goff all the time i didn't speak to steve roth though but my representative picked him you had one lawsuit once you sued somebody for defamation because they said you were worth hundreds of millions of dollars and i did very well in that lawsuit unfortunately i can't prove damages so that's okay hold on let's make sure we're talking about the same lawsuit this is the lawsuit against timothy o'brien and warner books yeah and your test one was you did very well yeah we were doing very well and frankly um the biggest problem with that lawsuit is we couldn't approve damages no your testimony you just gave was it you did very well in that lawsuit right yes you have oh i lost the lawsuit but i made a very good point with that loss so you lost the lawsuit yeah but i'm glad i brought that lawsuit i made a very good point with that last set for the full story in all the videos go to motherjones.com [Music]

Channel: Mother Jones

Views: 2,640,554

Rating: 4.7526965 out of 5

Keywords: politics, mother jones, news, Trump University, fraud lawsuit, Trump, Donald Trump, Jason Forge, Dan Petrocelli, Trump deposition, hot-mic

Id: HLMr2Ck9KVo

Length: 26min 49sec (1609 seconds)

Published: Fri Sep 18 2020

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[u/HonkinSriLankan]

For anyone unaware this resulted in a $25M settlement

[u/busterbluth99]

I'd wager all the lies and 'loss' of memory revealed in this video release won't upset Trump at all, it will be the fact that he is shown wearing glasses. That's where we are at...

[u/SockPuppet-57]

The companion video.

Roger Stone Deposition

[u/HonkinSriLankan]

and here’s some hot mic footage from the same deposition

[u/MaxxCrosby]

He reads like the kid in 3rd grade who couldn't read, but the teacher made read aloud anyway. So the entire class is a mixture of frustration, cringe, and stifled laughs until someone mercifully bails the kid out, explaining, "that word is pronounced THE"

[u/Peemore]

The irony of claiming you don't remember saying you have the world's best memory...

[u/dandelionfuzzz2727]

Not that I'm surprised but TIL Trump doesn't know what the word "filibuster" means.

[u/StopRhymingIMeanIt5]

What Trump looks like when he isn't surrounded by cult-like supporters and enablers but rather serious people whose job is it to hold him accountable: completely pathetic.