Media Companies Join Forces to Get Donald Trump Deposition Videos Released

The depositions are part of a lawsuit against Donald Trump and the now-closed Trump University

Eight major media companies have joined forces, requesting a judge allow video depositions of the presumptive GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump in the class-action lawsuit involving Trump University be made public.

The Trump University lawsuit filed in San Diego alleges the former university, which took in over $40 million, was fraudulent and deceptive.

On Friday, the Washington Post, ABC, NBC, CBS, New York Times, CNN, the Tribune Company joined together to file a request to unseal complete transcripts and videotapes of the "Trump Depositions." Fox News joined the media group in the filing June 15.

The "Trump Depositions" refer to video depositions of Trump taken on December 10, 2015 and January 21, 2016, according to the court documents.

Certain portions of the depositions are part of the public record, but hundreds of pages of transcripts of the depositions, and segments of the videos are not.

Click here to read the complete motion.

According to the motion, "portions of the depositions apparently remain designated as 'confidential' under the parties' broad stipulated protective order."

The media companies are asking U.S. District Judge Gonzalo Curiel permission to intervene in the case for the purpose of modifying the protective order to remove the confidential designation. That would allow the complete depositions to be part of the public record.

Monday, attorneys for Trump told the judge they oppose the plaintiff's being allowed to enter the video depositions of Trump and a promotional video created by the Trump University marketing department into the case, according to court documents.

A hearing has been scheduled in San Diego for June 30. Any response to the motion is required to be filed with the court by June 20. The hearing was rescheduled for July 13 in San Diego. Judge Curiel heard from both sides but did not make an immediate decision.

NBC 7 has reached out to both parties in the lawsuit but has not immediately received a response.

NBC 7 Investigates has been reporting on the class-action lawsuit that alleges Trump University misled students with unfulfilled promises of teaching them the secret to being successful in the real estate business.

The presumptive GOP nominee for president Donald Trump told a crowd of people in the San Diego Convention Center that Judge Gonzalo Curiel “is a hater” and complained that he was being “railroaded.” Watch the full 11 minutes of the speech pertaining to the lawsuit on Friday, May 27.

In the motion, the media companies said the Trump University lawsuit "not only raises important questions about Defendant (Trump) and his organization, it has become a prominent electoral issue."

The motion continues to describe how other hopeful U.S. presidential candidates have used the Trump University lawsuit to criticize Trump's qualifications to become president.

The media companies argue discovery materials are "presumptively public" and Trump has failed to justify keeping the depositions confidential.

In the motion the companies also argue the strong public interest in the lawsuit, "which involves serious allegations of fraud that have become a prominent issue in the 2016 presidential campaign weighs in favor of public disclosure."

Earlier this year, the Washington Post asked Judge Curiel to intervene in order to ask for thousands of pages of documents to be unsealed in this lawsuit. In May, he agreed and issued an unsealing.

Click here to read more about the documents released in that request.

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