Are The Trump Apprentice Tapes Finally About To See The Light Of Day?

For a number of years opponents of Trump have claimed there are outtakes from his Celebrity Apprentice TV show featuring supposedly horrific racist and sexist comments by the former President. Various guests and former workers of the show claim the tapes exist. Bill Pruitt, the former producer of the show added credibility to the claims tweeting that the tapes were “far worse” than Trump’s Access Hollywood (the notorious pussy grabbing) tape.

Tom Arnold, who appeared on Celebrity Apprentice, claimed to have seen such tapes but never produced any. On the other hand, other people in position to know and involved with the show, claim no such tapes exist.

I have long been skeptical of these claims simply because as they years roll by no such tapes materialized. They have been kept in the MGM vaults under a strict confidentiality agreement with Trump, but after all this time none have leaked.

The issue may be resolved soon due to a court case that has not received much media attention, and I’m sorry but this will get somewhat complicated. The case is Doe v. Trump Corporation and those with the wherewithal to read the complex 2018 filed complaint can do so HERE.

The class action lawsuit essentially claims fraud in the inducement. The plaintiffs assert Trump (and others in his company including Eric, Ivanka, and Trump Junior) falsely told them that a marketing company (ACN) offered essentially risk free investment opportunities that would provide great returns. Trump promoted ACN on Celebrity Apprentice, appearing with the company’s leaders and touting what they could do.

Plaintiffs allege that Trump knew none of his claims were true, that most investors lost money, but that he pushed ACN simply because the company gave him millions in kickbacks (of the investor’s money of course). Plaintiffs allege Trump never told potential investors of this conflict of interest.

Trump’s motion to dismiss for failure to state a cause of action was denied. The court then ordered discovery to proceed. That discovery included outtake tapes from Celebrity Apprentice.

Desperate to stall this discovery Trump claimed the dispute was subject to an arbitration agreement the plaintiffs signed with ACN as part of their investment contracts. The glaring problem with this assertion was Trump was not a party to this arbitration agreement and accordingly could not benefit from it. Thus, in April of last year, the court denied Trump’s motion to compel arbitration. The court also reprimanded Trump for not raising the arbitration issue earlier.

The next day the court ordered the discovery to continue describing the sought after Apprentice tapes as “currently discoverable.”

Of course Trump appealed, after all this was April of last year and the election was pending, revelation of the tapes could have been a bombshell. Earlier this week, in a 3–0 decision, the United States Court of Appeals rejected Trump’s appeal.

So we are now back to the District Court’s discovery order from last year directing that the tapes be turned over to the plaintiffs. Americans may finally get to see what is on those tapes and confirm whether they have the explosive material some have claimed.