President Trump is seemingly trying to use his position to block a lawsuit against him from proceeding, at least while he is still in office.
President Trump is seemingly trying to use his position to block a lawsuit against him from proceeding, at least while he is still in office, reports the Washington Post.
The defamation case was filed in New York on January 17 by Summer Zervos, a former contestant on the show 'The Apprentice,' who is accusing Trump of damaging her reputation by denying that he acted sexually inappropriately towards her in 2007 as she has claimed.
According to the Post, "Trump has denied Zervos's allegations and said her story was a 'total fabrication.'”
USA Today notes that "Zervos’ attorney, Gloria Allred, demanded a retraction, to no avail. So, she sued. Zervos’ lawsuit claims the alleged defamation was 'detrimental to Ms. Zervos’s reputation, honor and dignity.'"
A legal brief filed on Trump's behalf on March 27 states, “Defendant Donald J. Trump, the President of the United States, intends to file a motion to dismiss this action on the ground, among others, that the United States Constitution, including the Supremacy Clause contained therein, immunizes the President from being sued in state court while in office.”
It goes on to ask the court to follow a ruling outlined in a lawsuit Paula Jones had filed against former President Bill Clinton, stating, “This procedure is in accordance with a long line of U.S. Supreme Court cases that require the courts to show deference to the President and his schedule and that require immunity issues to be resolved first, because immunity does not just insulate a defendant from liability, but spares him or her from the burden of defending against a lawsuit in the first place.”
However, Allred has countered this argument, saying, “The United States Supreme Court addressed this legal immunity issue in Clinton v. Jones and determined unanimously that no man is above the law and that includes the President of the United States.”
