Proceedings in a former "Apprentice" contestant's lawsuit accusing President Trump Donald John TrumpBarr criticizes DOJ in speech declaring all agency power 'is invested in the attorney general' Military leaders asked about using heat ray on protesters outside White House: report Powell warns failure to reach COVID-19 deal could 'scar and damage' economy MORE of sexual misconduct and defamation have been put on hold after a panel of New York judges on Tuesday ruled that the state's highest court would have to weigh in on the lawsuit.

The Appellate Division in New York, a division of the New York state Supreme Court, granted Trump's request for the New York Court of Appeals to review whether Trump must face the lawsuit, which was filed by Summer Zervos in 2017, according to multiple reports.

Trump's attorneys have argued that the president should not be subject to legal action in state court while serving in the White House. But in a 3-2 decision last March, the Appellate Division in New York ruled that the U.S. Constitution did not block state courts from proceeding with cases that come under the state constitution and that the president would have to face the defamation lawsuit.

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The judges who dissented argued that the case would get in the way of Trump's executive duties and that it could wait until he exited office. Trump's attorneys appealed to a higher court following the decision.

“We believe that the Court of Appeals will agree that the U.S. Constitution bars state court actions while the President is in office," a spokesperson for Trump’s law firm, Kasowitz Benson Torres, said in a statement to Reuters.

Beth Wilkson, a lawyer for Zervos, said in a statement that “we remain confident that we will prove her defamation claim in court and that Mr. Trump will face responsibility for his actions.”

Zervos, who appeared as a contestant on "The Apprentice" in 2005, sued Trump for defamation in 2017 after Trump accused her of being a "liar" in wake of her sexual misconduct accusations against him. She has claimed that Trump kissed her against her will on multiple occasions in New York and Los Angeles in 2007 and that he groped her at a hotel in Beverly Hills.

Trump has adamantly denied the accusations of sexual misconduct leveled against him by Zervos and several other women. Zervos was one of a number of women to publicly accuse Trump of sexual misconduct during the 2016 campaign.