Apprentice contestant's Trump defamation suit can proceed

A New York appeals court ruled Thursday that U.S. President Donald Trump isn't immune from a defamation lawsuit filed by a former Apprenticecontestant who accused him of unwanted kissing and groping.

A panel of judges on the Supreme Court Appellate Division said in their ruling, in a case brought by Summer Zervos, that the supremacy clause of the U.S. Constitution doesn't require trials in statecourt to be delayed until the president is out of office.

Citing a U.S. Supreme Court ruling two decades ago in a caseinvolving alleged sexual misconduct by former president Bill Clinton, amajority of judges on the panel said presidents can be sued in statecourts over things they did that aren't related to their officialduties.

"The current sitting president attempts to shield himself fromconsequences for his alleged unofficial misconduct by relying upon the constitutional protection of the presidency," the judges saidin an opinion written by Justice Dianne T. Renwick.

"We rejectdefendant President Trump's argument that the supremacy clause ofthe United States Constitution prevents a New York State court and every other state court in the country from exercising its authority under its state constitution. Instead, we find that the supremacy clause was never intended to deprive a state court of its authority to decide cases and controversies under the state's constitution."

2 of 5 justices dissent

The decision, which increases the prospect that Trump could haveto sit for sworn questioning in the lawsuit, was not unanimous.

Two of the five justices on the panel, Peter Tom and Angela M.Mazzarelli, said in a dissent, written by Mazzarelli, that subjecting the president to a state trial court's jurisdiction"interferes with his ability to carry out his constitutional duty of executing the laws of the United States."

Trump's lawyer, Marc Kasowitz, said he planned to respond to theruling Thursday afternoon.

Zervos was among over a dozen women who came forward duringTrump's 2016 presidential campaign with allegations of sexual misconduct yearsearlier.

He called the women "liars" trying to harm his campaign with"100 per cent fabricated" stories, and he retweeted a messagespecifically calling Zervos's claim "a hoax." He also issued a statement denying it.

Trump's lawyers have said the case shouldn't go forward while heis in office. They also say his remarks were opinions that he had afree-speech right to express in the course of a heated campaign.

Zervos's lawyers said Trump's words were factual falsehoods thatsubjected her to threats and cost her business at her SouthernCalifornia restaurant.

Zervos appeared on The Apprenticein 2006, when Trump was thereality show's host. She says he made the unwanted advances the nextyear during get-togethers she hoped would yield career advice.

She says she didn't go public with her allegations for almost adecade because she admired Trump as a businessman and thought he hadhad just a couple of episodes of bad behaviour with her. Both Trumpand Zervos are Republicans.

Her resolve to stay quiet changed, she said, after an Access Hollywoodrecording emerged in October 2016 of Trump boasting about groping women.

Zervos is seeking a retraction, an apology, and compensatory and punitive damages.

Both sides have continued gathering evidence while awaiting the appeals court's decision. They face a June 28 deadline for anydepositions pretrial questioning under oath of Trump and Zervos by each other's lawyers.