During the first presidential debate, Donald Trump boasted of his ability to settle a racial discrimination lawsuit “with no admission of guilt”, a comment that was remarkable both for its glibness and its lack of moral imagination. In Trump’s universe, settlements are the same as settling issues, and not admitting guilt is the same as being innocent.

The details of Trump’s latest settlement, in which he paid some $25 million to resolve a class-action lawsuit against Trump University, a now defunct real-estate seminar that allegedly defrauded thousands of students, reveal how the president-elect uses the legal system to make even the most damning accusations go away. Politico reports that the money will be paid out two days before Trump takes office, settling the concern that Trump would have been the first to assume the presidency with a major fraud lawsuit hanging over his head. Students who participated in the suit, claiming that Trump had defrauded them by inflating the quality of his classes, will receive about 50 percent of the fees they paid to Trump University. Of the $25 million, $4 million will go towards a separate fraud lawsuit filed by New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman on behalf of Trump University students.

According to the terms of the settlement, filed in San Diego on Monday, both federal prosecutors and Trump’s attorneys called the settlement a “fair, adequate, and reasonable settlement,” though both argued that each of their merits were stronger. Just as in the federal racial discrimination lawsuit that he settled in the 1970s, Trump did not admit wrongdoing.

During the campaign, the lawsuit had been one of several incidents critics raised as evidence that Trump’s campaign promises, like some of his business enterprises, were a sham. The case eventually took on a racial tinge when Trump himself went on a tirade against the judge presiding over the case, Gonzalo Curiel, claiming that he had an “absolute conflict” because of his Mexican heritage. “I’m building a wall. It’s conflict of interest,” he said back in May. Trump got into further trouble when it was revealed that he had given a large donation to Pam Bondi, the attorney general of Florida, around the time that her office decided not to pursue a potential investigation into Trump University in the Sunshine State.

When the settlement was announced in November, Trump took a familiar victory lap. Soon, as president, he may be beyond the reach of the law entirely.