Buried in weekend headlines: a major development in a lawsuit that could doom Trump
In the wee small hours of Sunday morning, The Washington Post published a pretty big get in a story that has been simmering for months.
[Former game show host Donald]Trump will provide written answers under oath in the defamation lawsuit brought by former “Apprentice” contestant Summer Zervos, who claims Trump sexually assaulted her in 2007, a new court filing stated.
Lawyers for Trump and Zervos agreed this week to exchange “written answers and objections” to formal written questions by Sept. 28, according to a document filed Friday with the New York State Supreme Court. Rules in New York state require interrogatories to be sworn or verified, according to a source familiar with the system, meaning that false answers could open Trump to charges of perjury.
The stipulation agreement represents a step forward in the case, which lawyers for Trump have tried to block multiple times this year without success. Zervos sued Trump for defamation in early 2017 after he called her a liar for claiming he had groped and forcibly kissed her 10 years prior. Trump denies wrongdoing in the case.
Zervos’s lawyers have already delivered several stinging defeats to Trump, whose big mouth has not only revived a case that would normally have been long past the statute of limitations but also opened him up to discovery surrounding a dozen [or more] other alleged flings.
This slow-burn scandal could reveal several additional dalliances by Trump — and if he lies about anything in Xervos’s questionnaire, well, that’s perjury, which can lead to impeachment, removal, and/or indictment.
‘Nuff said.
