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Court Shields Donald Trump Deposition Videos

SAN DIEGO (CN) — A federal judge threw cold water Thursday on the media scramble to see videos of deposition testimony Donald Trump gave in a class action over the presumptive Republican nominee's now-defunct real estate school.

Trump sat for deposition on two separate occasions, Dec. 10, 2015, and Jan. 21, of this year, in connection to a class action over Trump University.

Art Cohen is the lead plaintiff in the case, which says Trump used the color of an educational institution bilk thousands of dollars from students.

Rather than getting any real educational value from enrollment, the students say Trump University seminars at hotels across the country merely encouraged them to spend even more money on upgrade packages.

A partially redacted transcript of Trump's deposition shows the Republican defending his so-called school's business practices, and addressing his previous endorsements of the presumptive Democratic nominee for president, Hillary Clinton.

Cohen filed the transcript June 3 as part of a lengthy exhibit list in opposition to Trump's motion for summary judgment.

U.S. District Judge Gonzalo Curiel said Thursday that Cohen also lodged videos "non-electronically" as exhibits, but that these filings failed to comply court procedures.

Section 2.k. of the Court's Electronic Case Filing Administrative Policies and Procedures Manual says parties must "seek leave of the court to allow the non-electronic filing of exhibits when they are not convertible to electronic form."

"Parties have complied with this rule on previous occasions in this and the related case Low v. Trump University LLC when they have sought to non-electronically file video exhibits," Curiel wrote.

The videos thus cannot be filed as exhibits and must instead be returned to Cohen, according to the ruling.

Cohen may seek to refile the video exhibits later, but must comply with the court rule regarding the filing of video exhibits, Curiel wrote.

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