NEW YORK — President Trump wants New York’s highest court to delay a defamation suit filed by a former ‘‘Apprentice’’ contestant who accused him of unwanted groping and kissing.
Trump’s lawyers filed notice late Monday that they’re asking the state Court of Appeals to freeze Summer Zervos’ suit while a lower appellate court considers Trump’s request to dismiss it or postpone it until after his presidency.
The president has denied Zervos’ claims.
Zervos’ lawyer, Mariann Wang, noted Tuesday that Trump has lost bids so far to delay the case — ‘‘and for good reason,’’ she said.
‘‘No one is above the law,’’ Wang said in a statement. She said that she believed the ‘‘sound reasoning’’ behind the denials so far would prevail.
Zervos, a California restaurateur, appeared in 2006 on Trump’s former reality show, ‘‘The Apprentice.’’ She says he made unwelcome advances when she sought career advice in 2007.
Zervos was among more than a dozen women who came forward late in the 2016 presidential race to say Trump had sexually harassed or assaulted them.
Trump denied all the claims, saying they were ‘‘100 percent fabricated’’ and ‘‘totally false’’ and his accusers were ‘‘liars.’’ He specifically contested Zervos’ allegations in a statement and retweeted a message that included her photo and described her claims as a ‘‘hoax.’’
Zervos’ suit argues Trump defamed her by calling her a liar. She says his words hurt her reputation, harmed her business, and led to threats against her.
She’s seeking a retraction, an apology, and compensatory and punitive damages.
Associated Press
Nielsen claims unawareness of election intel assessment
WASHINGTON — Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen said Tuesday that she was unaware of intelligence assessments concluding that Russia favored President Trump over Hillary Clinton in the 2016 election.
The US intelligence community said in a January 2017 assessment that Russia had tried to influence the election to benefit Trump.
‘‘I do not believe I’ve seen that conclusion that the specific intent was to help President Trump win. I’m not aware of that,’’ Nielsen said, responding to a reporter’s question after briefing House members on election security efforts.
She said she believed the Russians have attempted to manipulate public confidence on both sides.
‘‘We’ve seen them encourage people to go to a protest on one side. We’ve seen them simultaneously encourage people to go to that same protest on the other side. So I think what they’re trying to do, in my opinion, and I defer to the intel community is just disrupt our belief in our own understanding of what’s happening.’’
A spokesman for the department later said that Nielsen had reviewed the intelligence community’s assessment and agrees with it, but said the intelligence assessment language ‘‘is nuanced for a reason.’’
‘‘Importantly, they targeted both major political parties. As the secretary reiterated — their intent was to sow discord in the American electoral process,’’ the spokesman, Tyler Houlton, said.
But the intelligence community’s findings stated directly that the Russians sought to help Trump’s candidacy, and the question the reporter had asked Nielsen was: ‘‘Do you have any reason to doubt the Jan. 2017 intelligence community assessment that said it was Vladimir Putin who meddled in the election to help President Trump win?’’
The Senate intelligence committee said last week that it agrees with the intelligence agencies’ assessment. That was at odds with Republican members of the House intelligence committee, who said that while Russian President Vladimir Putin wanted to hamper Clinton’s campaign, that didn’t mean he wanted to help Trump.
Associated Press
Australia rejected as Corker passes on ambassador post
SYDNEY — Australia’s hankering for a US ambassador hit another snag Tuesday when Senator Bob Corker, Republican from Tennessee, said that he had turned down the job.
“At the end of the day, I just felt like it wasn’t the right fit and I still had work to do in the Senate,’’ Corker told Reuters.
Talk about rejection. It was the second “no, not me’’ in less than a month. In April, President Trump withdrew the nomination of Admiral Harry B. Harris, the head of the Pacific Command, assigning him instead to South Korea.
First there was the angry phone call, in which Trump yelled at Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull about a refugee deal he hated.
Then there was a warm exchange on an aircraft carrier in New York. That was followed by another cozy meeting in Washington, which was quickly undone by Trump’s steel tariffs, which were later reversed with an exemption for Australia.
One more cloud hovering over the relationship: One of Australia’s senior diplomats was a key catalyst for the investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 election.
Australia prides itself on a historic relationship with the United States.
Soldiers from the two countries have fought and died alongside each other since World War I. Australia is also a key player in Five Eyes, an intelligence alliance with the United States, Canada, Britain, and New Zealand.
New York Times
