A New York judge ruled on Thursday that Donald Trump cannot keep his lawsuit against a former staffer behind closed doors for now.
Judge Eileen Bransten ruled that the presumptive Republican presidential nominee or his attorneys must show cause in New York Supreme Court on August 10 as to why the suit against former adviser Sam Nunberg must be kept in arbitration and out of a courtroom. In court filings Wednesday, Nunberg and his attorneys pushed the court to keep the suit out of arbitration, alleging that Trump was seeking to silence the former staffer.
Trump’s lawsuit against Nunberg accuses him of violating a confidentiality agreement for allegedly leaking a story to the New York Post about a public screaming match between former campaign manager Corey Lewandowski and spokesperson Hope Hicks. Nunberg in his response to Trump’s lawsuit claims that the real estate mogul is trying to “use the sword of private arbitration proceeding against me to silence media coverage” of a “sordid and apparently illicit affair.”
Attorneys for Nunberg and Trump did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Should Trump’s attorneys not convince the judge, the lawsuit containing potential details of internal strife and other secrets about the campaign would play out in court just in the closing months of the general election.
Trump is famously litigious and his attorney Alan Garten defended the decision to pursue this case in statement Wednesday.
“As is standard practice for all major businesses, organizations and other entities dealing with proprietary information, Mr. Trump requires employees to sign and adhere to strict confidentiality agreements. When the agreements are not adhered to he will enforce them to the full extent of the law, and Mr. Trump’s litigation track record on such matters is outstanding," Garten said.
In addition to the lawsuit against Nunberg, Trump's lawyers will also appear in court in San Diego next week as a civil case against Trump University progresses. Trump will also have to appear in court in New York later this year over a fraud lawsuit from New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman, which alleges Trump scammed students out of millions.