Trump subjected to trifecta of sex-scandal lawsuits

As a candidate, Donald Trump vowed to sue the slew of women accusing him of sexual misconduct. That never happened.

But more than a year after Trump took office, he finds himself the target instead, increasingly enmeshed in litigation related to pre-election efforts to contain stories about his alleged sexual affairs and improprieties — a legal morass seemingly unrelated to special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into the Trump campaign’s alleged collusion with Russia and the firing of FBI Director James Comey, among other issues.

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Just Tuesday, former Playboy model Karen McDougal sued the publisher of the National Enquirer to escape an agreement that appears to have been aimed at bottling up her story of an affair with Trump. And a state court judge in New York rejected a bid by Trump’s legal team to use presidential immunity to shut down a lawsuit from former “Apprentice” contestant Summer Zervos, who says Trump groped her and kissed her against her wishes.

Those developments came amid an ongoing legal battle between Trump and adult film star Stormy Daniels, who claims to have had a sexual encounter with Trump over a decade ago. Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, is suing to void a nondisclosure agreement she agreed to in exchange for a $130,000 payment just before the election. Trump’s side is arguing that she owes more than $20 million for violating the terms of the deal.

All indications are the issue will not fade away. An interview with Daniels is set to air Sunday on “60 Minutes.” And Tuesday afternoon, Daniels took to Twitter to rebut a critic who urged her to “disappear.”

“Technically I didn’t sleep with the POTUS 12 years ago. There was no sleeping (hehe) and he was just a goofy reality TV star,” she wrote. “People DO care that he lied about it, had me bullied, broke laws to cover it up, etc. And PS…I am NOT going anywhere.”

Robert Bennett, the lawyer who went to the Supreme Court in an unsuccessful effort to block a sexual harassment and defamation suit against President Bill Clinton, said he expects the litigation against Trump to keep building.

“More and more people are going to come out of the woodwork,” Bennett told POLITICO. “I think it proves I was right in my argument before the high court. … These things are not isolated, and once you say that a litigant can sue a president, you’re opening a door to the very kind of thing that is now happening.“

Indeed, the judge assigned to Zervos’ case cited that Clinton precedent Tuesday as she ruled that presidents enjoy no broad immunity from suit over their unofficial actions, whether those cases are filed in federal or state court.

“No one is above the law,” New York Justice Jennifer Schecter wrote. “There is absolutely no authority for dismissing or staying a civil action related to purely unofficial conduct because defendant is President of the United States.”

The immediate question for Trump’s team now is not whether it can wipe out the building pile of litigation, but how long it can keep it at bay.

Bennett remarked Tuesday that despite the 9-0 beating he ultimately took at the Supreme Court, he still considers the foray a success because it managed to stave off Paula Jones’ suit until after the 1996 election.

“We won when the Supreme Court took the case, for this very reason,” the veteran Washington lawyer said. “Lloyd Cutler [the White House counsel] and I broke out a bottle of champagne because we knew that before the 1996 election he would not be deposed. … My mission really was to get the thing on hold until after the 1996 elections.”

Trump’s lawyers may well be able to delay some of the litigation, like Zervos’ suit. Trump attorney Marc Kasowitz said Tuesday he plans to file an appeal and to ask the judge to stay the case as the appeal goes forward.

“The more prominent, the more controversial the case is, the more pressure I think would be on the court to grant the stay,“ said Fordham law professor Benjamin Zipursky.

Zipursky said it is possible that as the number of suits involving Trump grows, the Supreme Court may consider weighing in, especially in light of criticism that its 1997 ruling understated the threat of a wave of litigation distracting a president from his duties.

“I don’t think it’s implausible, that if it keeps climbing through the courts, that at the end the Supreme Court would be willing to take it,” the professor said. “It could take years.”

Zervos’ lawyers have indicated they plan to press to question Trump, regardless of what appeals his legal team may pursue. Her attorneys have already mocked the notion that Trump is too busy to face questioning in their case.

“We can take a deposition down to Mar-a-Lago in between him going to play golf,” attorney Mariann Wang said at a December hearing, according to The Associated Press.

One conservative lawyer who was part of Jones’ legal team two decades ago praised Schecter’s ruling Tuesday and predicted fact-gathering in the Zervos case will move forward.

“The decision’s immunity holding is unimpeachably correct, which strongly cuts against a stay pending appeal,” George Conway, who was considered for several Trump administration jobs and is married to White House adviser Kellyanne Conway, wrote on Twitter. “Justice Schecter did a nice job.”

George Washington University law professor Jonathan Turley said the flurry of civil lawsuits could be more threatening to Trump than the Russia probe.

“I would not be worried about obstruction,” Turley said. “Financial stuff, false statements and Stormy Daniels are the real big ones.”

Bennett said the pile-up of sex-related litigation could prove even more distracting to Trump because of the nature of his personality.

“Bill Clinton was remarkable in his ability to compartmentalize things. Trump is not that way,” the veteran D.C. attorney said. “He takes to heart anything that anyone says about him. … He must be stewing over these. Every person has their own personality, and his is going to make this worse.”