Gloria Allred Leads Defamation Lawsuit Against Trump
Gloria Allred Holds Press Conference Announcing New Allegations of Sexual Misconduct Against Donald Trump. Image by Getty Images
By Nathan Guttman January 17, 2017
Jewish civil rights lawyer Gloria Allred wants to take Donald Trump to court.
Days before he takes the oath of office as president of the United States, Allred announced that her client is suing the president-elect for defamation. Summer Zervos, a former contestant on Trump’s reality TV show “The Apprentice,” first accused Trump in October of groping her and kissing her on her lips.
Trump’s response was harsh. He lashed out at Zervos and at other women who accused him of other cases of sexual harassment, calling them liars and vowing to sue them after the elections.
“Truth matters. Women matter. Those who alleged they were victims of sex misconduct or sex assault by Donald Trump matter,” Allred said in a press conference alongside Zervos on Tuesday. “Mr. Trump knew that his false disparaging statements would be heard by people around the world.”
Allred represents several women who had accused Trump of groping, unwanted kissing and sexual harassment. During the elections she challenged Trump to release his employees from their nondisclosure clauses in case they wish to speak out against his sexual misconduct.
While the statute of limitations prevents Zervos and other women from launching sexual assault lawsuit against Trump, the defamation accusation is recent and could force the president-elect to respond.
Zervos said she will drop the case immediately if Trump “simply retract his false and defamatory statements about me and acknowledge that I told the truth about him.”
Asked about the timing of her defamation case against Trump, Allred responded: “Why not now?” and added that “It’s time to face the consequences. Women are not a footnote to history.”
Contact Nathan Guttman at [email protected]
The Forward is free to read, but it isn’t free to produce
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward.
Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.
This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism you rely on. Make a gift today!
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
Dive In
-
Fast Forward Betar ‘almost exclusively triggered’ former student’s detention, judge says
-
Fast Forward ‘Honey, he’s had enough of you’: Trump’s Middle East moves increasingly appear to sideline Israel
-
Fast Forward Yeshiva University rescinds approval for LGBTQ+ student club
-
Fast Forward Rumeysa Ozturk ordered free on bail, after judge says op-ed criticizing Israel is insufficient to justify detention
Most Popular
- 1
Fast Forward Ye debuts ‘Heil Hitler’ music video that includes a sample of a Hitler speech
- 2
Opinion It looks like Israel totally underestimated Trump
- 3
Culture Cardinals are Catholic, not Jewish — so why do they all wear yarmulkes?
- 4
Fast Forward Student suspended for ‘F— the Jews’ video defends himself on antisemitic podcast
In Case You Missed It
-
Culture How one Jewish woman fought the Nazis — and helped found a new Italian republic
-
Opinion It looks like Israel totally underestimated Trump
-
Fast Forward Betar ‘almost exclusively triggered’ former student’s detention, judge says
-
Fast Forward ‘Honey, he’s had enough of you’: Trump’s Middle East moves increasingly appear to sideline Israel
-
Shop the Forward Store
100% of profits support our journalism
Republish This Story
Please read before republishing
We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines.
You must comply with the following:
- Credit the Forward
- Retain our pixel
- Preserve our canonical link in Google search
- Add a noindex tag in Google search
See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.
To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.