Former President Donald Trump declared a “complete victory” after a federal judge ruled Tuesday that class action lawsuits against him were barred.
According to U.S. District Judge Lorna Schofield of New York City, Trump entered into an endorsement deal with ACN Opportunity LLC in 2006 to promote its marketing training services for independent business entrepreneurs.
Following that, he signed a series of deals that lasted until June 2015, when he announced his presidential bid.
In the complaint, three plaintiffs alleged that Trump’s support influenced them to buy ACN’s products.
Two of them claimed to have made no money from the endeavor, while another claimed to have made only $38 during the two years.
The plaintiffs claimed they were unaware Trump was being compensated millions of dollars to endorse ACN.
Schofield discovered that defining a group of people harmed by Trump’s support would be impossible since people can be convinced by a variety of factors, including their study of the company, other marketing materials, and what others have told them.
“The majority of the content on the Opportunity Discs [promoting the company] portrayed testimonials from various successful IBOs, highlighting how ACN has enabled them to have, for example, a relaxed work life, expensive cars, and large homes,” the judge explained.
“The nature of Trump’s alleged misstatements also raises individual questions of whether any given putative class member believed the statements and therefore relied on them,” Schofield added.
She further noted that “the record evidence shows that some IBOs knew or assumed Trump was a paid spokesperson.”
And Trump’s claims about ACN, such as it being a “great opportunity,” having a “winning business model,” and having a “proven track record” of “creating millionaires,” can be interpreted as conventional promotional puffery rather than outright misrepresentations.
In addition to denying the formation of a class action lawsuit, Schofield ordered the three plaintiffs to file briefs by Tuesday explaining why their claims should not be separated from the others and transferred to the appropriate district courts in California, Maryland, and Pennsylvania, where they reside.
Trump responded to the judge’s ruling on Truth Social, writing, “Today we had a Total and Complete Victory against Far Left Lawyer, Roberta Kaplan, on her ridiculous ACN Class Action Suit, yet another Election Interference Case.”
“It was ruled that there can be no Class Action, and Certification was denied!” he added.
In May, Kaplan represented E. Jean Carroll in her defamation civil complaint against Trump, alleging that Trump raped her in a department store changing room in the 1990s.
Carroll has denied ever knowing the former president.
Trump lawyer Joe Tacopina said Carroll’s story was false in his closing argument in May.
“The whole story is clearly an unbelievable work of fiction,” Tacopina said.
He stated that the legal team supporting Carroll’s strategy was to make the jury despise Trump “enough to ignore the facts.”
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