Former President Donald Trump is now on a clock in a legal tangle. He
now has until December 23 to face questions in a former “Apprentice”
contestant’s defamation lawsuit over what he said in denying her sexual assault
allegations, according to a court order issued on Monday.

The new deadline for Trump’s deposition — a legal term for out-of-court,
pretrial questioning under oath — comes as Summer Zervos’ 2017 lawsuit emerges
from a more than yearlong freeze, the Associated Press reported.

“The defendant is now a private citizen, and he just cannot delay
this litigation any longer,” Zervos Attorney Moira Penza told a Manhattan
judge’s law clerk during the teleconference.

Then-President Trump was weeks away from a January 2020 deposition
deadline when he won a delay to ask New York‘s top court to consider holding off the case entirely
until he was out of office. He argued that sitting presidents couldn’t be sued
in state courts.

After he left office, the Court of Appeals said the question was moot.
The case returned to a Manhattan trial court for both sides to continue
gathering evidence.

Both Trump and Zervos will now face questions by December 23. If their
lawyers don’t set the dates in two weeks, the court will set them.

Zervos, a California restaurateur, appeared on “The
Apprentice” in 2006. Trump was then the host.

A decade later, he was the Republican presidential nominee, and she was
among a series of women who publicly accused him of sexual assaults or harassment years
before. Zervos said he subjected her to unwanted kissing and groping during what she thought would be
career-advice meetings in 2007 at his New York office and at a California hotel
where he was staying, according to the Associated Press.

He denied her allegations, retweeted a message that called her claims
“a hoax” and described the women who accused him of sexual assault
and harassment as “liars” trying to hurt his 2016 campaign’s chances.

Zervos then sued, saying he hurt her reputation. She is seeking a
retraction, an apology, and unspecified damages.

Former Trump lawyer Marc Kasowitz called Zervos’ claims meritless and
said Trump’s statements were true and protected by free speech rights.

Trump’s new lawyer, Alina Habba, said on Monday she plans to expand the
former president’s response to the case. She said she planned to draw on a 2020
New York law meant to protect people from frivolous lawsuits launched by the
powerful to squelch criticism.

The law expanded an existing statute, making it easier to fight
defamation claims when they center on communication in public “in
connection with an issue of public interest,” defined as “any subject
other than a purely private matter.”

(With AP inputs)