He may be POTUS but he is NOT above the law.
Shoulda paid her off too!
https://www.washingtonpost.com/polit...=.977e6ef0d448
New York appellate court allows Summer Zervos defamation suit against Trump to proceed
Felicia Sonmez
A New York appellate court ruled Thursday that President Trump must face a defamation lawsuit filed by former “Apprentice” contestant Summer Zervos, one of about a dozen women who accused Trump of sexual misconduct shortly before the 2016 election.
The ruling means that lawyers for Zervos may have the opportunity to question Trump under oath in the coming months.
Trump has called Zervos and the other women who made accusations against him “liars,” prompting Zervos to file a lawsuit in 2017. Trump’s lawyers have tried unsuccessfully to block the suit, arguing that the president is immune from such lawsuits in state court.
In its ruling Thursday, a panel of New York appellate judges rejected that argument, citing the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling in Clinton v. Jones, which established that presidents can be sued while in office for unofficial acts. Two of the five judges on the panel dissented in part.
“Contrary to defendant’s contention, Clinton v Jones did not suggest that its reasoning would not apply to state court actions,” the judges said in their majority decision. “It merely identified a potential constitutional concern. Notwithstanding that concern, this Court should not be deterred from holding that a state court can exercise jurisdiction over the President as a defendant in a civil lawsuit.”
Zervos’s legal team hailed the ruling as an affirmation that Trump “is not above the law.”
“The case has proceeded in the trial court and discovery continues,” Mariann Wang, Zervos’s attorney, said in a statement. “We look forward to proving to a jury that Ms. Zervos told the truth about Defendant’s unwanted sexual groping and holding him accountable for his malicious lies.”
The current schedule sets a deadline of June 28 for depositions, with document and electronic discovery expected to be concluded by the end of July.
Trump’s attorney, Marc E. Kasowitz, voiced disagreement with the ruling and said the president plans to appeal to the New York Court of Appeals, “which we expect will agree with the dissent.”
“We believe that the well-reasoned dissenting opinion by 2 of the 5 justices, citing the U.S. Supreme Court decision in the Clinton v. Jones case, is correct in concluding that the Supremacy Clause of the U.S. Constitution bars state courts from hearing cases against the President while he or she is in office,” Kasowitz said in a statement.
A lawyer for the Trump Organization did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Zervos has claimed that Trump forcibly kissed and groped her during a December 2007 encounter at the Beverly Hills Hotel in Los Angeles. Trump has denied the allegations.
Another defamation lawsuit against Trump by adult-film actress Stormy Daniels was dismissed by a federal judge in October. Daniels, whose given name is Stephanie Clifford, had argued that Trump defamed her when he suggested that she had lied about being threatened to keep quiet about their alleged past relationship.
In dismissing the Daniels case, U.S. District Judge S. James Otero wrote that Daniels had presented herself as Trump’s “political adversary” and that Trump’s “rhetorical hyperbole” was protected speech.
But the Zervos case differs in several key aspects, legal experts have noted.
In contrast to Daniels and her attorney, Michael Avenatti, Zervos and her lawyers have taken a low-key approach, a step that may help them negate claims that the suit is politically motivated.
The Zervos case is also based on more than a dozen statements by Trump claiming that she and other women had made false accusations against him. In the Daniels case, only one statement by Trump was at issue.
