Miami Dade College fights to avoid public hearing about Trump library deal

Claire Heddles, Miami Herald on Oct 24, 2025

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MIAMI — Miami Dade College’s board of trustees could end its legal battle with historian Marvin Dunn by holding a new public hearing on giving away prime downtown land to be used for Donald Trump’s high-rise presidential library — but new court filings show the college would rather duke it out in higher court.

The college’s attorneys told the Miami-Dade Circuit Court on Thursday they plan to appeal Judge Mavel Ruiz’s ruling temporarily blocking the college from transferring the deed to the land. The case would go to the 3rd District Court of Appeal, where almost half the judges were appointed by Gov. Ron DeSantis. They’re asking the lower court to stop proceedings until an appellate panel weighs in.

Dunn’s attorneys are asking the court for the opposite — to speed the trial up. They are proposing discovery in the next few weeks and a trial by January to “allow an early resolution of this controversy of great public importance.”

The latest development puts a spotlight on Miami Dade College’s resolve not to hold a new public hearing on the controversial land deal. Dunn’s lawsuit is about whether the college provided “reasonable notice” to the public of its plans to give up the land ahead of a Sept. 23 board of trustees meeting under Florida’s Sunshine Law. The trustees announced when and where they would meet to “discuss potential real estate transactions” a week before the meeting, but gave no other details.

Earlier this month, Ruiz said it’s likely Dunn will be able to prove the college violated transparency laws and temporarily blocked the school from transferring its land to the state, which has already voted to give the 2.6-acre property away to Trump’s presidential library foundation. Dunn says the lawsuit is not about the politics of the presidential library, but instead about public access. He’s seeking a new public hearing and vote on the land transfer.

But instead of holding a new hearing, the school is continuing to fight in court to defend the Sept. 23 meeting — where trustees voted to transfer the land to the state without any discussion or debate.

The September vote was shrouded in secrecy, even as the college’s attorneys have argued the public notice about the meeting was standard practice.

The notice did not detail which plot of land would be given to the state or the intended purpose. The college did not respond to questions from the Miami Herald ahead of the meeting about whether the vote was related to the presidential library. Miami Mayor Francis Suarez later told the Herald he was “kind of sworn to secrecy until it was announced” by college President Madeline Pumariega.

Miami Dade College did not respond to multiple requests about whether it was considering a new public hearing to avoid the ongoing litigation. It also ignored questions about how much the college was paying the Trump-linked, boutique law firm Continental PLCC that had been handling the college’s defense, recently joined by two solicitors general from Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier’s office.

Continental PLCC was founded by former Florida House Rep. and lobbyist Carlos Trujillo, who led Trump’s Latino voter outreach last year, and represented Trump in his legal fight over classified documents at Mar-a-Lago.

Uthmeier — whom Trump recently endorsed in Florida’s attorney general race — joined the college’s defense team last week. His office told the Herald this week it’s not treating Ruiz’s ruling as law until a written version of her ruling is posted.

“For any temporary injunction to be in place, there must be a written order served on the parties and a bond posted. Neither of those things happened, which means there is no injunction in place,” a spokesperson for the attorney general’s office told the Herald. “If Judge Ruiz hasn’t reconsidered her erroneous position over the last week, we plan to address the court’s error on appeal.”

The college had previously been planning to develop the Biscayne Boulevard parking lot through a public-private partnership. It held months of public negotiations over proposals in 2016 that included condos, as well as a slew of other benefits for the college including classroom space, a portion of sales and other perks.

“The irony in this whole thing is that now everybody’s fighting for another condo building as opposed to a presidential library,” said Felix Lasarte, an attorney who works with Trump. He did not comment on Trump’s reported plans to build a hotel on sight.

There are no public details of what specific benefits or financial incentives the college — which has been strapped for cash — would get from the high-rise presidential library, if any.

In June, while the board was approving its annual budget, Pumariega said the College suffered a $9.6 million loss because DeSantis vetoed a subsidy the college was expecting for employee health insurance.

“Our enrollment has been growing, our revenue stable, but our cost increased,” Pumariega said. “We’ve got ground to make up to be able to get our budget whole.”

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