As a presidential candidate, Donald Trump took great pride in boasting to the public that he doesn’t settle lawsuits. “I don’t settle cases,” the Republican bragged during a primary debate in 2016. “I don’t do it because that’s why I don’t get sued very often, because I don’t settle, unlike a lot of other people.”
Six years later, the former president continues to settle lawsuits. NBC News reported yesterday:
Former President Donald Trump reached a settlement Wednesday with a group of protesters who alleged in a lawsuit that his security guards assaulted them outside Trump Tower in 2015, lawyers for both sides said. The attorneys didn’t disclose details of the terms of the settlement, which came as the case was in the middle of jury selection.
In a sea of Trump scandals, it can be difficult to keep up on the details of every controversy, so let’s briefly recap for those who might benefit from a refresher.
It wasn’t the highest-profile controversy of Trump’s 2016 candidacy, but a few months after the Republican launched his national campaign, a small group of activists held a protest outside Trump’s New York office. Those same activists have alleged that they were violently assaulted by the candidate’s security guards, including Trump’s longtime bodyguard, Keith Schiller, who allegedly punched a protester in the head while trying to wrest away his “Make America Racist Again” sign.
According to the plaintiffs, while the former president did not directly participate in the altercation, he bears legal responsibility for the actions of his employees.
What’s more, as NBC News report added, Trump’s former lawyer Michael Cohen disputed Trump’s contention that he was in the dark about what his security officers were doing in his own videotaped deposition. … Cohen testified that he witnessed Trump directing Schiller to ‘get rid of’ the protesters and that Schiller later returned to Trump’s office with a sign he had taken from them, court filings show. That testimony was also going to be played for the jury in the now-canceled trial.”
During his time in office, Trump’s lawyers said he was too busy to answer questions about the case and made multiple attempts at having the case dismissed. Those efforts failed. After his 2020 defeat, the former president was forced to give a deposition in the case.
The Republican and his lawyers have now reached a settlement agreement, sidestepping a trial that they risked losing.
As for Trump’s earlier boasts that he never agrees to out-of-court settlements, his settlement in this case comes three years after he also settled a case regarding his fraudulent charitable foundation, paying $2 million in penalties, and shuttering the entity altogether. The settlement came after the then-president publicly declared, “I won’t settle this case!” None of this, of course, should be confused with the $25 million settlement Trump had to pay in the Trump University case, in which the president ran a “school” that was little more than a scam created to take advantage of unsuspecting students who trusted the Republican. He also vowed not to settle that case, shortly before he settled the case.
Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past."
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