Trump Attempting To Block Lawsuit By Woman Accusing Him Of Sexual Assault
Donald Trump is attempting to block a lawsuit filed by a former contestant on The Apprentice who says Trump sexually assaulted her and damaged her reputation when she publically accused him.
Trump’s lawyer is arguing that a sitting president can’t face a civil lawsuit.
According to a report in the Hollywood Reporter, Donald Trump’s lawyer Marc Kasowitz, Trump’s longtime attorney plans to file briefs in New York’s Supreme Court seeking to stop the lawsuit brought by Summer Zervos.
Ms. Zervos filed the lawsuit in New York in January, claiming that her reputation was damaged when Trump publically called her a liar when he responded her claims of sexual assault.
Zervos has alleged that Donald Trump attempted to kiss her inappropriately two times in 2007 and then attacked her in a hotel room.
And Zervos’s lawyer Gloria Allred has said Trump “knowingly, intentionally and maliciously” went after Zervos publically by calling the two “liars.”
Trump’s lawyer seems to be on shaky legal footing, as the Hollywood Reporter notes:
Kasowitz writes that Trump intends to file a motion to dismiss arguing that the Supremacy Clause immunizes the President from being sued in state court while in office. The attorney adds the “crucial threshold issue was raised, but not decided, by the U.S. Supreme Court in Clinton v. Jones.”
That refers to a lawsuit that Paula Jones filed against Bill Clinton in 1994, while he was serving his first term in the White House. Jones alleged that Clinton sexually harassed her while serving as Governor of Arkansas. Clinton’s attorneys argued that in all but the most exceptional cases, any litigation against the president should be deferred until he left office.
In 1997, the high court came back with its answer that a president can’t escape private litigation.
