A judge ordered President Donald Trump to sit for a seven-hour deposition by Jan. 31, 2019, in a defamation case brought by former ‘Apprentice’ contestant Summer Zervos.
Trump’s legal team moved quickly to keep the deposition from becoming part of a wider inquiry on any allegations against the president.
Trump attorney Marc Kasowitz said he would try to block Zervos from asking the president questions about other women who have alleged they were harassed or sexually assaulted by the president.
Trump’s legal team had tried to get Zervos’ defamation lawsuit dismissed or delayed until after his presidency.
A judge ordered President Donald Trump to sit for a seven-hour deposition by Jan. 31, 2019, in a defamation case
Former ‘Apprentice’ contestant Summer Zervos accused Donald Trump of rubbing his genitals against her, which he said was fiction and she then sued for defamation
Summer Zervos is seen above on The Apprentice in 2006
During the 2016 election, Zervos accused Trump of rubbing his genitals against her in an incident at the Beverly Hills Hotel in 2007.
He called her allegations ‘fiction’ and she sued him for defamation.
Zervos’ lawyer, Mariann Wang, indicated she was interested in obtaining information from other women who have accused the president of inappropriate conduct.
Lawyers for each side were in Manhattan Supreme Court on Tuesday to set deadlines for the case, which included depositions for Trump and Zervos.
After neither side could agree, the judge set a schedule.
Each side has until July 13 to make demand for documents and has to respond to such demands by October. They’re due back in court in September and the case is scheduled for trial sometime after June 7, 2019.
The deposition could last up to seven hours.
The president’s lawyers reminded the judge that Trump is a busy man with many demands on his time.
‘We will do our best to abide by those dates and deadlines,’ Kasowitz said, adding that ‘there are significant attendant duties that the president must perform,’ so he may need to ask for adjournments.
Earlier the judge denied Kasowitz’s request to delay the case until the U.S. Supreme Court can determine whether the president is immune from state civil lawsuits while he is in office.
Zervos, a California restaurateur, appeared in 2006 on Trump’s former reality show, ‘The Apprentice.’ She says he subjected her to unwanted kissing and groping when she sought career advice in 2007.
She was among more than a dozen women who came forward late in the 2016 presidential campaign to say that Trump had sexually harassed or assaulted them.
He denied all the claims, saying they were ‘100 percent fabricated’ and ‘totally false’ and his accusers were ‘liars.’ He specifically contested Zervos’ allegations in a statement and retweeted a message that included her photo and described her claims as a ‘hoax.’
Zervos says his words hurt her reputation, harmed her business and led to threats against her. She is seeking a retraction, an apology and compensatory and punitive damages.
Trump’s attorneys have said his statements were true, and also that his remarks were ‘non-defamatory opinions’ that came amid the heated public debate of a national political campaign.
Besides the campaign records, Zervos’ lawyers have subpoenaed other information including any ‘Apprentice’ material that features Trump talking about Zervos or discussing other female contestants in a sexual or inappropriate way.
Trump’s lawyers, meanwhile, are seeking a court order to keep some documents and information private. The details are yet to be worked out.
Such confidentiality agreements, meant to facilitate the exchange of information between opposing sides, aren’t uncommon. Wang said Trump’s lawyers initially signaled they wanted to seal a swath of filings in the case, but Kasowitz said Tuesday they would narrow their request.
But Kasowitz said they are mindful of media interest and might seek additional protections if it ‘intrudes on the interests and rights of the litigants or looks like it would impair the ability to have a fair trial.’