At Least It’s Not The Russians
Remember the dozen or so women who came forward prior to the election and accused Donald Trump of sexual misconduct? You know, the kind of conduct that he “joked” with Billy Bush about. Well, those accusations have turned into a lawsuit and the lawsuit isn’t going away. Trump’s lawyers have been arguing that the case is “totally meritless” and have challenged the authority of the state court with regard to a sitting president. If a New York judge does not dismiss the case, the President will find himself tangled in yet another messy legal matter. While this civil suit pales in comparison to the ongoing investigations into Russian interference in the 2016 Presidential Election and potential collusion with the Trump team, it remains a thorn in the side of the embattled administration.
Summer Zervos filed a defamation lawsuit a year ago in which she claimed Trump groped and sexually assaulted her. He called Zervos and other female accusers “liars.” Trump’s lawyers have fought to keep the case from going to trial, dismissing it as “totally meritless” and arguing that a state court has no jurisdiction over a sitting president. A New York judge is expected to rule any day on whether it should proceed.
Zervos, a former contestant on Trump’s reality TV show, “The Apprentice,” is the only one of about a dozen women who accused Trump of sexual misconduct shortly before the 2016 presidential election to have brought legal action. Her complaint details phone calls and meetings that could be used to verify — or refute — her allegations, and her attorneys could call other accusers to the stand to describe Trump’s behavior. Zervos declined to be interviewed.
Trump has denied Zervos’s account of an alleged December 2007 encounter at the Beverly Hills Hotel. “To be clear, I never met her at a hotel or greeted her inappropriately a decade ago,” he said when she made her accusation.
The White House referred questions about Trump’s whereabouts at the time to his private lawyer Marc Kasowitz, who did not respond to a request for comment. He has previously dismissed the claim as politically motivated.
In her complaint, Zervos said she asked to meet with Trump that month at Trump Tower in New York, seeing him as a “potential employer.” Zervos claims Trump dubbed her his “OC Angel,” referring to her California home county, and invited her to meet him for dinner in Los Angeles. The suit details phone calls from Trump to make arrangements.
