[JURIST] Lawyers for President-elect Donald Trump [political website] filed a motion [text] with the US District Court for the Southern District of California [official website] on Saturday requesting that the trial pertaining to Trump University be postponed until after Trump’s inauguration. They had previously requested that the trial be postponed until after the presidential campaign, so the trial is currently set to begin November 28. The lawyers now argue:

Now that the election is over, we submit that the President-Elect should not be required to stand trial during the next two months while he prepares to assume the Presidency. The time and attention to prepare and testify will take him away from imperative transition work at a critical time. We acknowledge plaintiffs have a right to trial of their claims, but their rights will not be abridged if trial were continued to a date after the inauguration to allow the President-Elect to devote all his time and attention to the transition process.

Defense counsel is proposing that Trump’s trial testimony can be recorded by videotaped deposition prior to the postponed trial date. The trial is a consolidation of two cases, and the lawyers argue that Trump should not be forced to testify in person twice while preparing to assume the presidency.

Trump University was a real-estate educational program that operated [CNN report] from 2005 until its closing in 2010. Though the program had no physical location and was not licensed as an educational institution, it enrolled an estimated 10,000 students in classes geared towards achieving business success. Two class action lawsuits were brought [WP report] by two San Diego students who accused Trump University of making false promises to those that enrolled. In May, the District Court ordered [JURIST report] the release of internal documents pertaining to Trump University. In 2013, New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman [official profile] brought [NYT backgrounder] a separate $40 million lawsuit against Trump University accusing the program of defrauding over 5,000 students.