Donald Trump faces deadline for questioning in former 'Apprentice' contestant's defamation suit

Former President Donald Trump now has a Dec. 23 deadline to undergo questioning in a former "Apprentice" contestant's defamation lawsuit over what he said in denying her sexual assault allegations, a court said 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 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 the 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 this year, the state high court -- called the Court of Appeals -- said the question was moot. The case returned to a Manhattan trial court for both sides to continue gathering evidence.