President Donald Trump’s lawyers hope to persuade an appeals court to dismiss or delay Summer Zervos’s claim that he defamed her by calling her a liar after she had accused him of unwanted kissing and groping.
Appeals court judges weighing Trump’s bid to shut down a former Apprentice contestant’s defamation suit against him are asking a question: could a New York court order the president to jail?
The question came up - but wasn’t definitively answered - as lawyers for Trump and Zervos argued on Thursday in a New York court.
Trump lawyer Marc Kasowitz said the question illustrated his argument that a sitting president can’t be sued in a state court over non-official conduct.
Zervos attorney Mariann Wang said the case should proceed.
Like President Bill Clinton, Trump could face legal peril if he must testify about his sexual history in the suit filed by Zervos and another by Stephanie Clifford, the adult film actress known as Stormy Daniels, who alleges she had consensual sex with Trump in 2006 and was physically threatened in 2011 to stay silent.