After Trump’s Request To Freeze Defamation Suit Is Denied, Summer Zervos Demands ‘Apprentice’ Tapes

On Thursday, a New York appeals court denied President Donald Trump’s request to halt a defamation lawsuit from a woman who accused him of sexual harassment.

Trump’s Request To Stop Summer Zervos Lawsuit Rejected

The woman, former Apprentice contestant Summer Zervos, alleged Trump kissed her twice and groped her in 2007. Zervos filed the lawsuit against the president in early 2017 after he started denying her accusations and called her and other women who accused him of harassment or assault “liars.”

Trump’s defense team needs to respond by the end of this month to a subpoena Zervos’ lawyer demanded that requests for videos and other records related to the woman and any interactions she had with Trump during her time as a contestant on The Apprentice. The subpoena, requested earlier this month also reportedly asks for records of any other discussions Trump had about Zervos or any other women who were on the show around the same time as Zervos. It is meant to see if the real estate mogul had confessed to assaulting or harassing anyone else, or if he had spoken about any women in crude terms.

Shortly after Zervos filed her lawsuit against Trump last year, Marc Kasowitz — one of Trump’s attorneys — said it’s not possible to sue a sitting president.

Kasowtiz questioned whether the Constitution’s Supremacy Clause can prohibit a state court lawsuit against a president during his/her term in office.

“There is no valid reason in this case — in which plaintiff is seeking merely $3,000 in damages, and which plaintiff’s counsel has repeatedly insisted was brought for political purposes — for the Court not to grant the requested stay in order to take the time to first decide the threshold Constitutional issue that is at stake,” Kasowitz said in a statement shared by ABC News.

Besides Zervos, two other women have filed defamation lawsuits against Trump after encounters with him years ago: porn star Stormy Daniels — whose case has garnered the most attention and is being heard in New York — and former Playboy model Karen McDougal. 

Given the latest development in Zervos’ case, she and her legal team can now request to depose Trump if they so choose. However, Trump could still choose to settle this case.