President Trump’s legal team wants a court to dismiss a defamation lawsuit brought by a former contestant on his reality show “The Apprentice” because it is politically motivated.
Trump’s attorneys filed on Friday a motion to dismiss the lawsuit brought by Summer Zervos, who appeared on the show’s fifth season. Zervos claimed that Trump tried to kiss her twice in 2007 and attacked her in a hotel room, according to the Hollywood Reporter.
The filing speculated that the real purpose behind the lawsuit is to get material for potential impeachment hearings.
Trump quickly denied Zervos’ claims last year, which were made shortly after the emergence of a 2005 “Access Hollywood” video that showed Trump discussing grabbing women by the genitals.
After he was elected and right before he took office, Zervos and her attorney Gloria Allred filed a “meritless litigation asserting a frivolous $3,000 claim of defamation against Mr. Trump,” the filing said.
The filing added that Zervos’ own cousin “has voluntarily come forward to refute her false allegations and publicly defend the President.”
Trump’s legal team added that Zervos’ counsel had “openly conceded — indeed, bragged — that their true motivation is to use this action for political purposes as a pretext to obtain broad discovery that they hoped could be used in impeachment hearings to distract from the President’s agenda.”
