The left is waging a multi-front war on Donald Trump.
Obama’s political appointees are leaking damaging stories left and right, and Senate Democrats are obstructing his cabinet nominees.
But their push to sink Trump might not work out as planned.
Feminist attorney Gloria Allred recently held a press conference announcing that former ‘The Apprentice’ contestant, Summer Zervos, is suing Trump for defamation of character after he denied her allegations that he groped her in 2007.
Zervos is one of the women the left produced after the Access Hollywood tape showing Trump making lewd remarks was leaked to the press.
Democrats believed this tape would end Trump’s campaign, but the American people focused on his America First message instead and elected him President.
Trump denied her allegations, with his campaign producing a statement from Zervos’s first cousin who described the glowing remarks she had made about Trump.
Zervos had also emailed a Trump Organization executive in April of 2016 pitching her idea to open a restaurant for Trump supporters.
There are also several legal issues which make the fight likely to fail as well.
Writing at LawNewz, Robert Barnes describes five steps Trump can take to get the case tossed out, and even have Zervos pay for his legal fees:
“How can Trump dismiss the action? First, Trump’s team can remove the action to federal court. Second, Trump’s team can transfer the action to California. Third, Trump’s team can ask the court to recognize and apply substantive California law to the suit. Fourth, Trump’s team can move to dismiss the action under the anti-SLAPP law; California law requires likely dismissal of the suit under California’s anti-SLAPP law, otherwise known as the prohibition of suits that reflect a Strategic Litigation Against Public Participation. Fifth, and maybe most precarious for Allred, and the likely reason she filed in New York, and not California, Allred’s client could then owe Trump his legal fees for her filing an anti-SLAPP suit. Politics and lawsuits do not make a friendly marriage in the courts of California. Why did Allred hold all her press conferences in California but file her suit in New York? Maybe because she knows California law protects public statements in a unique way when they concern politics. But that same protection her clients had from Trump suing them does not, in turn, protect them from suing Trump, no matter the venue gymnastics.”
Barnes writes that Trump can get the case move to federal court because the issue involves two adults from different states with damages more than $75,000.
To keep the case in New York State court, Zervos would have to seek less than $75,000, which would likely lead to the case being put off until Trump is out of office.
Barnes notes that although Zervos is from California, her case was filed in New York.
He also explains that California anti-SLAPP law blocks lawsuits against public officials unless you know their statements were not protected speech and you are likely to prevail before the discovery phase of trial.
This law would also allow Trump to file suit against Zervos to recoup his legal fees.
Finally, Barnes writes that her suit is likely to be dismissed because courts have long held that calling someone a liar is not defamation of character.
If denying allegations is defamation of character, then anyone who defends themselves against claims of wrongdoing is open to a lawsuit.
The Access Hollywood tape and the parade of women alleging Trump groped them did not sink his campaign.
And just like the left’s effort to use that episode to bog Trump down with scandal had failed – their Summer Zervos episode is likely to fail as well.
