COURTS/LAWSUIT/NEW YORK/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT/WOMEN: “U.S. President Donald Trump has asked New York state’s highest court to delay a defamation lawsuit by a former contestant on his reality television show ‘The Apprentice’ who said he sexually harassed her, claiming immunity and denying the allegations. Trump is challenging a March 20 ruling by Justice Jennifer Schecter of State Supreme Court in Manhattan allowing the case to proceed. A preliminary conference before Schecter is scheduled for June 5, court records show. In a filing on Monday [5-21-18], Trump told the state’s Court of Appeals that the lawsuit by Summer Zervos should be put on hold because a sitting U.S. president is immune from being sued in a state court during his term in the White House. In another filing late Tuesday [5-22-18] night, Trump formally answered the complaint, and again denied the allegations or said he did not have enough information to form a belief. Saying ‘no one is above the law,’ Schecter rejected Trump’s claim of immunity over private conduct predating his becoming president. An intermediate state appeals court on May 17 refused to halt Zervos’ lawsuit, without ruling on its merits.”
-Jonathan Stempel, “Trump says ‘immune’ from ‘Apprentice’ contestant lawsuit, seeks delay,” Reuters, May 23, 2018 4:41 am