NEW YORK _ Donald Trump's campaign organization is escalating efforts to silence a former manager who claims she he was harassed on the job, borrowing a page from the president's playbook against Stormy Daniels.
Lawyers for the campaign want to shunt Jessica Denson into closed-door arbitration as she tries to beat back a nondisclosure agreement that she says makes it difficult to proceed with a lawsuit accusing her former supervisors of creating a hostile work environment. The lawyers contend Denson is required by her contract to resolve disputes in the private forum.
Denson is waging simultaneous battles in state and federal courts in New York even as Trump continues tussling with Daniels in Los Angeles. In March he threatened the adult film star, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, with $20 million in damages for violations of a "hush agreement" that requires her to remain silent about a sexual encounter she alleges they had in 2006.
Another woman who claims to have had an affair with Trump in 2006, Playboy model Karen McDougal, also went to court to challenge a nondisclosure agreement. That one was with the owner of the National Enquirer, which bought the rights to McDougal's story and then buried it. McDougal reached a settlement with American Media Inc. in April that restores her ownership of the experience.
