Judge rejects Trump bid to dismiss suit from woman alleging sexual advances

A New York judge has rejected a bid by President Donald Trump to dismiss a lawsuit relating to his alleged groping of Summer Zervos, a contestant on “The Apprentice,” in 2007.

Lawyers for Trump argued that he was immune from the suit in state court while serving as president, but Judge Jennifer Schecter ruled on Tuesday that there was “absolutely no authority” to justify tossing out litigation over “unofficial conduct.”


“No one is above the law,” Schecter wrote in her 18-page decision. “Nothing in the Supremacy Clause of the United States Constitution even suggests that the President cannot be called to account before a state court for wrongful conduct that bears no relationship to any federal executive responsibility.”

The judge also declined an alternative request from Trump’s attorneys that the case be put on hold until he leaves office.

“There are no compelling reasons for delaying plaintiff’s day in court here,” Schecter wrote.

The ruling raises the possibility that Trump could be ordered to submit to a deposition about his conduct toward Zervos and perhaps other women, as well.

Trump’s lawyer in the case, Marc Kasowitz, signaled on Tuesday that he would fight any such moves.

“We disagree with this decision, which is wrong as a matter of constitutional law,” Kasowitz said in a statement. “We intend to immediately appeal and will seek a stay of the case until this issue is finally determined.”

Zervos’ attorney, Gloria Allred, said, “I am very happy.“

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At a news conference a few weeks before the 2016 presidential election, Zervos claimed that Trump groped her breast and repeatedly kissed her as she was seeking work opportunities a couple of years after being “fired” from “The Apprentice,” his reality TV show. She said she chose to speak out only after Trump’s recorded comments to “Access Hollywood” emerged and he denied a flurry of charges from more than a dozen women.

Trump also denied Zervos’ claim, and in October 2016 his campaign released a statement from one of Zervos’ cousins saying that Zervos had “nothing but glowing things” to say about Trump in the years after her brief stint on the 2005 season of the show.

Three days before Trump’s inauguration last year, Zervos filed a lawsuit against him for defamation, alleging that her reputation was damaged when he insisted that her allegations were false.

Many of the legal arguments on the immunity issue revolve around the U.S. Supreme Court’s 1997 ruling in the sexual harassment and defamation suit brought against President Bill Clinton by Paula Jones, an Arkansas state employee when Clinton was governor. The justices ruled unanimously in that case that Clinton had no immunity from a civil suit filed in federal court over actions he took before becoming president.

However, the Supreme Court decision left open the question of whether state courts could be trusted to accommodate a president’s unique duties and responsibilities.

In addition, a series of liberal commentators have argued that Clinton v. Jones was wrongly decided, because it gave short shrift to the ways civil lawsuits could be used to attempt to entangle a sitting president in time-consuming and distracting litigation. Trump’s lawyers highlighted that critique in their brief, but the two-decade-old ruling remains the law of the land.



CORRECTION: Judge Jennifer Schecter‘s name was misspelled in an earlier version of this article.