Trump Accuser Zervos Seeks `Apprentice' Outtakes

(Bloomberg) -- A former contestant on "The Apprentice," who says she was sexually assaulted by Donald Trump, is seeking audio and video evidence and other materials to support her claim that she was defamed when he called her a liar.

Summer Zervos is demanding outtakes from the reality show in which Trump talks about her, according to Zervos’s lawyer Mariann Wang. Those outtakes were the focus of searches by much of the national media in the U.S. during the election, with many fixated on what Trump may have said. Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer now owns the footage.

Wang said subpoenas were issued to MGM and the Beverly Hills Hotel for records of Trump’s stay there. Zervos claims Trump groped her at the hotel in 2007. Trump has denied the claim.

Zervos sued Trump in January 2017 in Manhattan New York state court claiming that he defamed her when he said she lied about the encounters in which she said he also forcibly kissed her. Zervos, who met with Trump in hopes of securing a job after her ’Apprentice’ appearance in 2005, is one of at least 19 women who have come forward accusing him of sexual misconduct.

“We’re gathering evidence that we believe will prove that the defendant lied when he falsely denigrated Ms. Zervos and when he denied sexually assaulting her,” Wang said in an email.

Zervos claims Trump “ambushed” her on more than one occasion starting in 2007, kissing her, touching her breast and pressing his genitals against her. In March, Justice Jennifer Schecter denied the president’s request to throw out the lawsuit or delay it until he leaves office.

Trump is separately embroiled in a scandal involving a $130,000 hush payment to adult film actress Stormy Daniels. Trump’s lawyer Michael Cohen paid Daniels to keep quiet about an alleged sexual encounter she had with him in 2006. Daniels also claimed she was threatened by a man in Las Vegas in 2011 if she were to discuss the tryst publicly.

After she released a composite sketch of the man on April 17, Trump wrote on Twitter that the man was “nonexistent” and it was a “total con job.” Daniels responded by suing the president for defamation.

Zervos also wants MGM to turn over any recording in which Trump is describing women in "any sexual or inappropriate manner," according to Wang. The issuance of the subpoenas was first reported by the New York Times.

The case is Zervos v. Trump, 150522/2017, New York Supreme Court, New York County.

To contact the reporter on this story: Christie Smythe in Brooklyn at csmythe1@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editors responsible for this story: David Glovin at dglovin@bloomberg.net, Joe Schneider, Peter Blumberg

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