President Trump asserts immunity against defamation claims
NEW YORK (AP) – President Donald Trump’s lawyers say he is immune while president from defamation claims brought by a former contestant on “The Apprentice.”
The lawyers say in a New York State Supreme Court filing Monday they’ll formally ask for dismissal of the January claims by Summer Zervos. They say the Constitution immunizes Trump from being sued in state court while president.
The lawyers wrote that a long line of U.S. Supreme Court cases require courts to show deference to the president and his schedule.
Zervos, a contestant on Trump’s reality show in 2006, sued after claiming at a news conference that Trump made unwanted sexual contact with her at a Beverly Hills hotel in 2007.
Trump’s lawyers say the president denies “these unfounded accusations” made in a “transparent politically-motivated attack.”