A lawsuit accusing Donald Trump of orchestrating a video cellphone scam on his reality television show “Celebrity Apprentice” has been effectively shredded by a New York federal court judge, records and reports show.
The pyramid scheme lawsuit — which accused Trump and his three oldest children of hawking dud “Iris 5000” video chatting phones to unsuspecting suckers — was divvied up into three chunks and set to three different state courts, federal court records show.
It began in 2018, when four people who professed themselves suckered filed suit against Trump, Ivanka, Don Jr. and Eric, according to a Daily Beast report.
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The foursome scored one legal win in the form of potentially damning Celebrity Apprentice outtakes U.S. District Judge Lorna G. Schofield ruled they should be allowed to review.
But Schofield also cleared Trump’s kids of wrongdoing, gave it class-action status, and then, on Friday, kicked the skimpy remains to California, Pennsylvania and Maryland, according to the ruling.
The Daily Beast’s Jose Pagliery called the ruling a small legal win for team Trump, about to face off against E. Jean Carroll in a second defamation trial.
He notes Carroll is represented by Roberta Kaplan, the lawyer behind the pyramid scheme suit.
