DON’S SUE BUSY
Targets riot probe, ‘Apprentice’ contestant
Former President Donald Trump sued Monday to block the release of documents related to the Jan. 6 insurrection to the congressional committee investigating the attack, setting up a court showdown with President Biden.
The move by the litigious ex-president came on the same day Trump countersued an “Apprentice” contestant claiming sexual assault. In the morning, Trump sat for a deposition regarding the treatment of Mexican protesters outside Trump Tower in 2015.
The former president’s new lawsuit against the chairman of the congressional committee argues the panel’s demand for documents is “almost limitless in scope” and unrelated to the riot. Many of the documents, Trump argues, are protected by privileges surrounding presidential communications and conversations between lawyers and a client.
The committee’s request was a “vexatious, illegal fishing expedition,” unprecedented in scope and “untethered from any legitimate legislative purpose,” the lawsuit said.
Biden has said he will not block the release to the committee because the Jan. 6 attack was such an unprecedented event that executive privilege should not apply.
Lawmakers are seeking the documents as part of its investigation into the mob of Trump supporters who stormed the Capitol in an attempt to halt certification of Biden’s win.
Meanwhile, attorney Benjamin Dictor confirmed to the Daily News that he took Trump’s testimony at Trump Tower on Fifth Ave for four hours starting at 10 a.m., questioning him about the circumstances surrounding a security crackdown on Mexican protesters on Sept. 3, 2015. The protesters, who had rallied outside Trump Tower in response to Trump’s notorious comment during the campaign that Mexican immigrants were criminals and rapists, say their free speech rights were violated by Trump Tower security.
Dictor said he questioned Trump about statements on the campaign trail encouraging hostility towards critics, among other topics.
The lawyer would not reveal the substance of the deposition. But he said he was excited to play it in a courtroom “after years of the defendants’ dilatory attempts to shield him from this examination.”
“We look forward to presenting the video of Mr. Trump’s testimony to a jury at his trial,” said Dictor.
“I would say the fact that Mr. Trump sat down at a conference table with a court reporter, put his hand in the air and took an oath to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth is a demonstration that our institutions are intact,” Dictor added. “And that Trump is not above the law.”
Roughly an hour after the deposition concluded, Trump’ filed a countersuit against former “Apprentice” contestant Summer Zervos, arguing her defamation suit violated a law barring baseless legal claims.
Zervos sued Trump in 2017 for branding her a liar after coming forward with allegations she was sexually assaulted by the former president in 2007. He successfully delayed the lawsuit while in office.
Trump’s lawyer Alina Habba says in the filing that Zervos stifled Trump’s free speech rights in bringing the suit and that he had a right to deny her allegations on the campaign trail.
“The statements were of momentous public interest; even [Zervos] herself has repeatedly acknowledged that her allegations were intended to reflect on [Trump’s] fitness for the office of presidency,” the suit reads. Trump demands compensatory and punitive damages plus attorneys’ fees in the countersuit.
A judge recently ruled the former president must sit for a deposition in Zervos’ lawsuit by Christmas.
Lawyers for Zervos responded Monday night that Trump’s legal move was “baseless” and “a desperate reaction that he and his associates be deposed by December 23.”
“We look forward to taking Mr. Trump’s deposition and zealously fighting his unwarranted attacks against our client,” Beth Wilkinson and Moira Penza stated.