‘Apprentice’ contestant Summer Zervos presses her defamation case against President Trump
The lawyer representing former “Apprentice” contestant Summer Zervos in her defamation lawsuit against President Donald Trump filed a memorandum opposing Trump’s attempt to have the case temporarily suspended until his appeal, which is pending, has been decided.
In one of the exhibits attached to Tuesday’s filing, Zervos details the harassment and threats she received after Trump denied her claims that he sexually assaulted her.
“Immediately after he made each derogatory statement, I would get calls and people coming to my restaurant threatening me or my business,” said Zervos, who runs a restaurant in California.
“They would shout ‘lying c–t’ or ‘lying b–tch’ into the phone and say I should die, or say that they would drive us out of business,” she said. “Several customers told me specifically that they would no longer come to my restaurant because I had lied. Other people called and placed fake take-out orders to hurt my business. I worried constantly for my safety, the safety of my family and the people I work with.”
“Because I’m a Republican and small-business owner and live among many supporters of Defendant [Trump], it was especially bad,” Zervos said.
Attorney Mariann Wang filed Zervos’ response about a week after Trump’s attorney, Marc Kasowitz, asked the judge for an interim stay in the case.
Kasowitz is appealing a March 20 ruling by New York Supreme Court Justice Jennifer Schecter, who allowed the case to go forward by denying Trump’s motion to dismiss. He wants the appellate court to revisit the matter of whether the Constitution’s Supremacy Clause bars a state court from hearing an action against a sitting president; Schecter ruled it does not. Kasowitz argues Schecter also erred on denying the President’s motion to dismiss or delay the case on First Amendment grounds.