Trump's phone records back timeline of 'Apprentice' contestant's assault claim: Lawyer

Kevin McCoy | USA TODAY

Show Caption Hide Caption Judge: Trump must sit for deposition in defamation case President Trump has been ordered to sit for a deposition in a defamation lawsuit against Summer Zervos. Veuer's Sam Berman has the full story.

NEW YORK — Billing records for President Donald Trump's former cellphone show a call to a former "Apprentice" contestant on a day when she says he subjected her to unwanted kissing and groping, a newly unsealed court filing shows.

The records filed in Summer Zervos' defamation suit against Trump indicate that she got a call from Trump's cell phone on a day in December 2007, when she says he called to invite her to dinner. She says she went hoping for career advice and ended up being sexually assaulted.

The records also show a call to Zervos from Trump's cell phone the next afternoon, as well as calls from her phone to his cell phone in the following months. Her lawyers say the phone calls support that she's telling the truth.

Trump's lawyers initially battled to keep his cell phone bills for a three-month period in 2007-2008 designated confidential, a position that Zervos' attorney Mariann Wang called "baseless" in an October legal memorandum that opposed the classification.

Before the lawsuit was filed, Zervos "publicly described exactly when, where, and how the sexual assaults took place," Wang argued in the memorandum. She added that Trump "has now been forced to produce documents from his own files confirming that he and (Zervos) were exactly where she said they were exactly when she said they were there."

Trump's legal team subsequently dropped the effort to keep the records confidential.

In a statement issued early Tuesday, Wang said Trump "improperly designated documents from his files which supported" Zervos' claims as 'confidential.'"

Trump lawyer Marc Kasowitz told the Associated Press that Zervos' claims "are entirely meritless and not corroborated by any documents."

The phone records emerged within hours of other legal setbacks for Trump.

A federal appeals court in New York ruled that Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance has a legal right to seek eight years of presidential tax records for a criminal investigation of Trump. The President's lawyers said they would petition the U.S. Supreme Court to review the decision.

Separately, an attorney for Lev Parnas, an associate of Rudolph Giuliani, Trump's private attorney, said the Ukrainian-born businessman would drop his former objections and testify before presidential impeachment investigators.

Parnas and Belarus-born business associate Igor Fruman reportedly assisted Giuliani's effort to find damaging information in Ukraine about the business dealings there involving Hunter Biden, the son of former vice president Joe Biden — one of Trump's potential 2020 presidential campaign challengers.

The White House did not immediately comment on Parnas' new stance.

And, like Zervos, magazine columnist E. Jean Carroll sued Trump for defamation in New York for his criticism of her and denials of her claim that he raped her in a department store dressing room more than two decades ago. The attack recounted by Carroll "never happened," said White House spokeswoman Stephanie Grisham.

4 facts about E. Jean Carroll, President Trump's latest accuser These are 4 things you need to know about E. Jean Carroll. The advice columnist is the latest to accuse President Donald Trump of sexual assault.

Zervos, a California restaurateur, appeared on the former Trump-hosted reality show "The Apprentice" in 2006. She said she later contacted him in hopes of furthering her career.

Zervos says the then-businessman and reality TV star made unwanted advances twice in December 2007: once in his Trump Tower office in New York and later at the Beverly Hills Hotel in California.

More: President Trump to turn over calendars in Summer Zervos' defamation lawsuit

Zervos was among more than a dozen women who came forward during Trump's 2016 presidential campaign to accuse him of sexual assault or sexual harassment.

Trump called them "liars" trying to harm him with "100 percent fabricated" stories. He also issued a statement denying Zervos' allegations and retweeted a message calling them "a hoax."

Both Trump and Zervos are Republicans.

Zervos sued Trump for defamation, contending that he damaged her reputation by repeatedly calling her a liar.

The newly unsealed phone records come from a former Trump cellphone number that leaked during the 2016 presidential campaign. He later invited people to call it for a campaign message.

More: NY appeals court rules President Donald Trump must face Summer Zervos' defamation lawsuit

The phone records show a call to Zervos from Los Angeles on Dec. 21, 2007, when Trump's calendar shows he was due to fly there and head to the Beverly Hills Hotel.

A call to Zervos from Beverly Hills followed the next afternoon, a day when Zervos has said she and Trump briefly met at his Los Angeles-area golf course. Trump's personal calendar, which emerged earlier in the lawsuit, shows he was scheduled to be at that location.

The phone records also show two calls from Zervos to Trump's phone on Dec. 26, 2007. Zervos has said she'd gotten what she considered a low-salary job offer from the golf club and told Trump she felt she "was being penalized for not sleeping with him."

The records show two more calls from Zervos in January and February 2008. She has said she had "a subsequent conversation about a job" with Trump and was told to stop using his private number, but she hasn't specified when.

Zervos is seeking a retraction, an apology and damages.

Trump's lawyers have said his statements were opinions and he had a free-speech right to express them. His attorneys have tried to get the case dismissed, or at least delayed until he's no longer in office.

The two sides agreed on Friday to a Jan. 31 deadline for Trump to provide a sworn deposition, a procedure in which he will be questioned outside of court as the lawsuit proceeds.

Contributing: Associated Press