Phone records 'irrefutable proof' of sexual assault claim against Trump, lawyer says

ByAARON KATERSKY ABCNews logo
Tuesday, November 5, 2019

Cell phone records provide "irrefutable proof" of the sexual assault accusations former "Apprentice" contestant Summer Zevos has leveled against President Donald Trump, her attorney claimed Tuesday.

Zervos has alleged Trump "repeatedly touched her, groped her, and kissed her" on multiple occasions in late 2007 and early 2008, and he has denied it and called her a liar.

"To be clear, I never met her at a hotel or greeted her inappropriately a decade ago," Trump said in a 2016 statement. "That is not who I am as a person, and it is not how I've conducted my life."

Zervos said there is corroborating evidence the Trump Organization was forced to turn over as part of her defamation lawsuit filed in the New York Supreme Court earlier this year. This includes calendar entries, filed with the court in late October, and cellphone records, released in early November.

The cellphone records, released Nov. 5, show that for a three-month period between 2007 and 2008, Trump made multiple calls to Zervos. Her attorney said it's further evidence that validates her allegation of sexual assault.

Trump's company had tried to shield the cellphone records from the case by designating them confidential because they showed a phone number once used by the president. Mariann Wang, who represents Zervos, called the argument "absurd," and the Trump Organization agreed to remove the designation.

The phone records appear to validate Zervos' public statement that Trump called her in late 2007 after he had landed in Los Angeles. She claimed he asked her to meet him at the Beverly Hills Hotel, where she claims he sexually assaulted her.

"Defendant's phone records show that Defendant called Ms. Zervos on her cell phone on December 21, 2007 at 3:02 p.m. from Los Angeles, just two minutes after his scheduled arrival time in Los Angeles," a memo from Zervos' lawsuit said. "Defendant's calendar shows that he stayed at the Beverly Hills Hotel on December 21, 2007 -- the day he placed the call to Ms. Zervos's cell phone."

The phone records provide what Wang called "irrefutable proof" that Zervos gave an accurate account of her interactions with Trump, who has denied the sexual assault and has been fighting the defamation charge.

In an Oct. 24 court filing, Zervos included a copy of an email that she said was sent to the Fox News tip line with the subject line "Trump hit on me."

"I was on the Apprentice. After the show was completed, Trump invited me to a hotel room under the guise of working for him. He had a different agenda. Please contact me to speak further as I have tried to make contact," the email stated, according to the court filing.

Zervos' October filing also included "copies of Defendant's calendar entries and itineraries from late 2007 through early 2008 -- the period in which Ms. Zervos reported she met with and was assaulted by Defendant" produced by the Trump Organization.

President Trump's legal team agreed to provide four potential dates for a deposition by the end of November. The schedule calls for Trump to be deposed by the end of January.

The president argued unsuccessfully that the state had no jurisdiction over him to hear Zervos' defamation case. He had threatened to appeal to New York's highest court but has never followed through.

Trump's legal team has not immediately responded to ABC News' request for comment.

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