The New Trump Defamation Lawsuit Is Daring Trump to Incriminate Himself in Court

[DonViejo]

By Jeremy Stahl

LOS ANGELES—One of the women who accused Donald Trump of sexual misconduct last year has filed a defamation lawsuit against the president-elect. Summer Zervos, a former Apprentice contestant who alleged in October that Trump groped and kissed her without consent, announced the lawsuit on Tuesday from the offices of her attorney, Gloria Allred.

Her hands visibly shaking as she held a copy of her statement, Zervos said she had “no alternative” but to sue Trump to vindicate her reputation. The lawsuit seems designed to either force Trump into a confession or into giving potentially embarrassing or incriminating testimony in court. Both Zervos and Allred said the lawsuit would be dropped if Trump retracted his statements calling the women who accused him of assault and misconduct “liars.”

Multiple times during the press conference, Allred made an analogy to Paula Jones’ sexual harassment case against Bill Clinton. In a deposition in that case, Clinton lied about his relationship with Monica Lewinsky. It was that lie that led to Clinton’s impeachment. “If President Trump decides not to testify truthfully under oath in this case, should he be required to provide his deposition and or testify at trial, then I think Congress will have a very important decision to make,” Allred said. “I would hope that (Republicans who supported Clinton’s impeachment) would put partisanship aside and do the right thing, apply the same standard to president Trump as was applied to President Clinton.”

While that hypothetical is a long way away, the lawsuit does establish the possibility for a whole lot of evidence to be revealed in court. When I asked Allred at the press conference if any of the other women who have accused Trump would be participating in the lawsuit, she said that she could not say, citing attorney-client privilege. She did note, however, that Allred and Zervos would be attending the Women’s March on Washington on Saturday to protest Trump’s Friday inauguration and that “other accusers” would “be there marching with us.”

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http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_slatest/2017/01/17/the_new_trump_defamation_lawsuit_is_daring_trump_to_incriminate_himself.html

[Squinch]

1. Wouldn't it be great if one of the women he grabbed was the one to bring him down?

[sheshe2]

4. It would be sweet justice.

[central scrutinizer]

2. One brave woman

You know the red hat brigade is praying or planning for a "second amendment solution"

[Squinch]

5. I am pretty sure I would not be strong enough to do what she is doing.

[Lee-Lee]

3. Since she is a "public figure" I expect the suit will be thrown out

The standard for a defamation case for a public figure is pretty high.

I would love to see it happen, but I'm not going to get my hopes up.