John Owens was the deputy chief of consumer protection for the state of Texas in 2010. Tasked with looking into complaints about Trump University, Owens found plenty to complain about. In fact, he was ready to take Donald Trump to court.
According to the documents provided by Owens, his team sought to sue Trump, his company and several business associates to help recover more than $2.6 million students spent on seminars and materials, plus another $2.8 million in penalties and fees.
But before the suit could go forward, Owens received some very unusual instructions. Unlike with any similar case, he was told to stop the suit.
Owens said he was so surprised at the order to stand down he made a copy of the case file and took it home.
"It had to be political in my mind because Donald Trump was treated differently than any other similarly situated scam artist in the 16 years I was at the consumer protection office," said Owens, who lives in Houston.
What kind of deal might have been struck that resulted in Owens finding the plug pulled and Texas consumers being left out in the cold?
The Associated Press first reported Thursday that Trump gave donations totaling $35,000 to Abbott's gubernatorial campaign three years after his office closed the Trump U case.
Bondi. Abbot.
Next?
The Trump University case would seem to have all the ingredients of not just a media sensation, but a genuine someone-goes-to-jail scandal. It includes defrauding people down on their luck, a fake “university” using cheaply produced plagiarized materials, and high-pressure sales techniques from “instructors” who were actually salesmen. Their job was to tease that the real secrets were just ahead, so that students would keep paying. The case even includes Donald Trump’s numerous racist attacks on a judge because of his Mexican heritage.
And it includes bribery. Bribery, plain and simple. Bribery that was, in at least one case, funneled through Trump's “charitable” foundation. And yet … the press might not be responding with straight-up crickets, but this whole affair is getting much less attention than that generated when the Associated Press diced statistics to generate a phony pay-for-play scandal targeting Hillary Clinton, with nothing real behind it.
In the meantime, what John Owens has to say is still too hot for Texas.
Republican Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton moved to muzzle a former state regulator who says he was ordered in 2010 to drop a fraud investigation into Trump University for political reasons.
Paxton's office issued a cease and desist letter to former Deputy Chief of Consumer Protection John Owens after he made public copies of a 14-page internal summary of the state's case against Donald Trump for scamming millions from students of his now-defunct real estate seminar.
Lies heaped on lies. Consumers taken for a ride. Backroom deals. Bribery. Racism. But the condemnation level is remarkably low. Trump even slipped in an accusation that President Obama bribed the New York AG to go after him, but it didn’t even make a ripple in the news stream.
Which is why Trump plans to do it all again.
Donald Trump on Thursday said he plans to reopen Trump University after a lawsuit against the program that closed in 2010.
The presumptive GOP presidential nominee announced the plan on Twitter.
After the litigation is disposed of and the case won, I have instructed my execs to open Trump U(?), so much interest in it! I will be pres.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 2, 2016
That’s Donald Trump, planning to reopen a scheme the employees have admitted was a scam—while he is president. No interest? Anyone?