Trump Campaign Loses Fight to Get Ex-Staffer to Pay $50,000
Trump Campaign Loses Fight to Force Ex-Staffer to Pay $50,000
(Bloomberg) -- Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign lost a court battle with a former staffer who allegedly violated a non-disclosure agreement by going public with claims she was harassed and defamed by her superiors.
A New York appeals court on Thursday overturned an almost $50,000 arbitration award against the former worker, Jessica Denson, for breaching the NDA’s confidentiality and non-disparagement provisions by making her allegations in a lawsuit.
Denson, a Los Angeles-based actress who worked on Trump’s campaign in August 2016, argued there was no way for her to challenge the validity of the broadly worded NDA without disclosing some factual allegations about the campaign. The court agreed.
“There is a deep-rooted, long-standing public policy in favor of a person’s right to make statements during the course of court proceedings without penalty,” the appeals court said.
Denson sued the campaign twice -- first in 2016 to void the NDA and then in 2017 seeking $25 million in damages for the alleged harassment and defamation. Those claims are still pending.
The campaign countered with a $1.5 million arbitration claim. After a federal judge ruled the case could be arbitrated, as required by the agreement, the campaign was awarded $49,508 plus interest, which was then confirmed by a state court judge in Manhattan.
Denson’s lawyer, David Bowles, said he and his client were “extremely gratified” by the unanimous appeals court decison. “We can now go forth unhindered to pursue Ms. Denson’s rights without fear of financial retaliation for doing so,” he said.
--With assistance from Chris Dolmetsch.
To contact the reporter on this story: Erik Larson in New York at elarson4@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: David Glovin at dglovin@bloomberg.net, Anthony Lin
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