Trump Scores Win in Lawsuit Over Promotion of Marketing Business

Former President Donald Trump speaks to the media during the third day of his civil fraud trial in New York on Oct. 4, 2023. Kena Betancur/AFP via Getty Images

A federal judge refused on Tuesday to certify the ongoing lawsuit alleging President Donald Trump defrauded individuals in his promotion of a multi-level marketing venture as a class action.

Filed in 2018, the complaint focused on ACN, which sold telecommunications products, and two other companies. The plaintiffs are represented by Roberta Kaplan, the same attorney who represented E. Jean Carroll in her successful sexual battery and defamation suit against Mr. Trump.

U.S. District Judge Lorna G. Schofield ruled that putative class members lacked certain common elements in bringing the case. “Here there is no common evidence showing that putative class members decided to enroll because of Trump’s alleged misstatements,” Judge Schofield wrote for her order in the Southern District of New York.

The Trump Corporation filed a motion to dismiss while attempting to distance Mr. Trump from ACN. It argued that the lawsuit “seeks relief for a single class of putative victims – those who paid money to a business Mr. Trump does not own, has never owned, and over whose operations he has never exercised control.”

According to Courthouse News Service, Schofield allowed multiple claims to proceed but rejected federal conspiracy and racketeering charges in the case. The case is headed for trial on Jan. 29.

The Thurgood Marshall United States Courthouse, which hears cases from the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York and United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, stands in Lower Manhattan, New York City, on Jan. 18, 2019. Drew Angerer/Getty Images

Trump responded to Tuesday’s order by declaring victory and alleging that Ms. Kaplan was a “Far Left” lawyer and suggesting her case was an attempt at election interference.

“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,” he said on TruthSocial. “It was ruled that there can be no Class Action, and Certification was denied!”

Ms. Kaplan did not respond to The Epoch Times’ multiple requests for comment. According to its website, her firm—Kaplan, Hecker, and Fink LLP—also represented Mr. Trump’s niece, Mary Trump, in a lawsuit alleging that the former president and his children attempted to defraud Ms. Trump of a share of her father’s inheritance.

Three of Mr. Trump’s children—Ivanka, Donald Jr., and Eric—were also named as defendants in the initial complaint brought by Ms. Kaplan. It alleged that the Trumps “conned” four plaintiffs “into giving up hundreds of thousands of dollars—losses that many experienced as devastating and life-altering.” Judge Schofield signed an order in 2023 releasing the Trump children as defendants but said their depositions and discovery responses could be used in the trial.

The Trumps pushed for arbitration based on a clause in ACN’s agreement with plaintiffs. The company itself is not a defendant but featured Mr. Trump in its promotional materials. An appeals court ruled that “there is no evidence to suggest that the plaintiffs treated the defendants as if they were effectively parties to the … agreement.”

The ACN case comes as the former president is facing multiple lawsuits in New York, the District of Columbia, and Georgia.

On Monday, Judge Chutkan issued a gag order prohibiting him from speaking about certain parties to the case. Mr. Trump derided the gag order as unconstitutional and vowed to appeal the case, which he has framed as part of a broader set of politicized attacks on him. He’s repeatedly blasted Judge Chutkan, who is overseeing his case in Washington, and noted that she was appointed by President Barack Obama—something she shares with Judge Schofield.