By Kevin Bohn
October 15, 2017
Lawyers for one of the women who have accused Donald Trump of sexual assault subpoenaed his campaign for all documents relating to her, all communications with or about her and "all documents concerning any woman who asserted that Donald J. Trump touched her inappropriately." This comes in the case of Summer Zervos, a former contestant on "The Apprentice" who accused Trump of sexually assaulting her in 2007. The accusations were made in October of last year at a news conference. Zervos claims Trump kissed her twice on the lips during a lunch meeting in his New York City office and on a separate occasion in Beverly Hills, she alleges he kissed her aggressively and touched her breast. In a statement at the time, Trump denied these claims. The subpoena, issued in March, is just coming to light now and is part of a defamation lawsuit filed by Zervos in January in the New York State Supreme Court against Trump following his denials. The subpoena was served to the campaign, but Zervos' lawyers and the campaign agreed to suspend the response date until after a motion to dismiss the lawsuit is decided, Mariann Wang, one of her attorneys, told CNN. She said campaign officials gave assurances that the documents be preserved which they did. His lawyers also said if the case isn't dropped at least it should be stayed until he leaves office.
Information about the subpoena was entered into the court record as part of a filing in which Zervos' attorneys argued against dismissal of the suit. While Trump's attorneys have said Zervos' allegations are politically motivated, her lawyers disagreed. "Contrary to Defendants' spin, this case is not about robust political debate. Ms. Zervos was not a political opponent, nor was she a political commentator routinely engaged in criticizing candidates," Zervos' attorneys countered in a court filing last month. "She came forward to report the details of Defendants' unwanted sexual battery only after he repeatedly lied publicly about his behavior. Defendant then used his international bully pulpit to violate her for a second time." Trump's attorneys face an October 31 deadline to further respond in support of the request for the case to be dismissed. Trump's attorney did not respond to a request for comment. The White House referred comment to the campaign, and a representative did not return a request for comment.
