(University of Oregon School of Law, 2017-12-21) Peterson, Christopher L.
During the 2016 presidential election, President Donald J. Trump faced three lawsuits accusing him of fraud, racketeering, and violation of a variety of other consumer protection laws. These cases focused on a series of wealth seminars President Trump called “Trump University,” which collected over $40 million from consumers seeking to learn President Trump’s real estate investing strategies. Although these consumer protection cases were civil proceedings, the underlying legal elements in several counts the plaintiff sought to prove run parallel to the legal elements of serious crimes under both state and federal law. Somehow lost in the election’s cacophony was the question of whether President Trump’s alleged fraudulent behavior rises to the level of an impeachable offense under the impeachment clause of the Constitution of the United States.
