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Summer Zervos Drops Defamation Lawsuit Against Donald Trump

Summer Zervos Drops Defamation Lawsuit Against Donald Trump

Summer Zervos, a onetime “Apprentice” contestant who claimed former President Donald Trump sexually assaulted her more than a decade ago, agreed to drop the defamation suit she filed after he called her liar.

According to a filing Friday in New York state court, both Zervos and Trump agreed to drop the litigation, with each bearing their own legal costs. Trump had been due to sit for a deposition before Christmas, having failed in his attempt to get the suit thrown out earlier this year.

Trump issued a statement claiming vindication in the “lawsuit by a woman who made up false allegations” and saying he paid no money. Neither Zervos nor her lawyer immediately responded to requests for comment.

During the 2016 presidential campaign, Zervos claimed Trump groped and molested her in 2007 when she was one of the contestants on his NBC reality show. After Trump called her a liar, she sued him for defamation.

Due for Deposition

The case was filed in 2017 but dragged on for years as Trump argued that, as sitting president, he could not be subjected to state court lawsuits. A trial judge rejected that defense four years ago, but New York’s highest court didn’t dismiss appeal until March. 

Zervos is not the only sexual assault claimant who has sued Trump. New York advice columnist E. Jean Carroll also sued Trump for defamation in 2019 after he said she was lying about having been raped by him in a Manhattan department store dressing room in the 1990s. 

Carroll’s lawyer, Julie Fink, said in statement Friday that she “has no intention of withdrawing her complaint against Donald Trump” and noted that proposed changes to New York law may make it possible for Carroll to sue him for rape as well as defamation.

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