WASHINGTON (AP) — Emails from 2010 show that the staff of then-Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott investigating Trump University thought the real estate seminars were a scam bilking “novices” with get-rich-quick promises that were impossible to deliver.
The Associated Press reviewed government records obtained through a public records request by the Democratic political action committee American Bridge. Despite ample evidence, Abbott’s office dropped a plan to sue Donald Trump and his business partners for fraud and seek $5.4 million in penalties and restitution to victims.
Three years later, Abbott’s gubernatorial campaign sought and received a $35,000 donation from Trump. Now the state’s Republican governor, Abbott has also endorsed the presumptive GOP presidential nominee.
Abbott denied that politics played any role in the decision to drop the case. Trump U ceased operations in Texas.