AP FACT CHECK: Trump on discrimination in his business

WASHINGTON – A claim from the presidential debate and how it stacks up with the facts:

TRUMP: Donald Trump said that a 1970s racial discrimination case against his real estate business was settled “without any admission of guilt” and that the case was brought against “many real estate firms.”

THE FACTS: The first claim is technically correct; the second is flatly false.

Trump and his father fiercely fought a 1973 discrimination lawsuit brought by the Justice Department for their alleged refusal to rent apartments in predominantly white buildings to black tenants. Testimony showed that the applications filed by black apartment seekers were marked with a “C” for “colored.” A settlement that ended the lawsuit did not require the Trumps to explicitly acknowledge that discrimination had occurred — but the government’s description of the settlement said Trump and his father had “failed and neglected” to comply with the Fair Housing Act.

Trump is also wrong to say that the suit was brought against many real estate developers — it was specific to buildings rented by him and his father.

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This story corrects the quotes in the second paragraph to “without any admission of guilt,” not “with no admission of guilt,” and to “many real estate firms,” not “brought against many real estate developers.”

EDITOR’S NOTE _ A look at the veracity of claims by political figures