NJ Spotlight News
Former Trump golf club employee alleges sexual harassment
Clip: 12/5/2023 | 4m 54sVideo has Closed Captions
The former server alleges she was tricked into signing an NDA
A former server at the Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, Alice Bianco, alleges she was repeatedly sexually harassed by her supervisor and tricked into signing a non-disclosure agreement by Donald Trump’s personal lawyer, Alina Habba. Bianco's lawyer, Nancy Erika Smith, spoke with NJ Spotlight News on Tuesday about the case.
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NJ Spotlight News is a local public television program presented by THIRTEEN PBS
NJ Spotlight News
Former Trump golf club employee alleges sexual harassment
Clip: 12/5/2023 | 4m 54sVideo has Closed Captions
A former server at the Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, Alice Bianco, alleges she was repeatedly sexually harassed by her supervisor and tricked into signing a non-disclosure agreement by Donald Trump’s personal lawyer, Alina Habba. Bianco's lawyer, Nancy Erika Smith, spoke with NJ Spotlight News on Tuesday about the case.
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Learn Moreabout PBS online sponsorshipThe Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster is being hit with a lawsuit from one of its former employees, Alice Bianco, a former staffer at the club, alleges she was repeatedly sexually harassed by her supervisor, then tricked into signing a non-disclosure agreement by the former president's personal lawyer, Alina Habba..
The lawsuit filed in Middlesex County Superior Court includes allegations dating back to 2021 when Bianco herself was 21 years old.
She's obtained a prominent New Jersey attorney, Nancy Erika Smith, to represent her case, who joins me now.
Nancy, Erika Smith, welcome to the show.
Let me just ask you first lay out for me what this lawsuit alleges on behalf of your client, Ali Bianco.
This alleges that Ms.. Bianco was subjected to the worst kind of sexual harassment.
We call it quid pro quo, meaning she was forced to actually perform sex acts in order to keep her job by the long term food beverage manager at Trump's Bernardsville Golf Club when another woman complained, and you'll note that she complained repeatedly about sexual harassment at this club before writing a letter, putting it in, writing.
And she related that Ali was subjected to actually being forced to perform sex for keeping her job and protection, as he called it.
When that letter that her coworker wrote was hand-delivered to Trump's personal staff and a lawyer wanted to conduct an investigation from his New York office, Ali got a lawyer, an experienced employment lawyer, and she was almost immediately contacted by Alina Habba, who is a member of the club and a lawyer who pretended to be her friend and said she was neutral and wanted to help her two good friends Ali and Donald Trump.
And she encouraged Ali to have a very poor relationship with her lawyer, not to comply with her lawyer's complaints.
In texts, she disparaged her experienced employment lawyer until that relationship failed.
And then she proceeded to get Ali to agree to a illegal nondisclosure agreement and various other terms that are very favorable to Donald Trump while pretending that she didn't represent Donald Trump.
And we all know that Alina Habba is Donald Trump's lawyer.
She sits next to him in court every day now and one of his many trials.
And so who does this suit name?
Is Alina Habba named, is Mr. Trump named?
Who's included?
The defendant is the golf club because the defendant was the employer who is a party to the agreement.
We hope that the ethics authorities in New Jersey will look at this.
You can't defraud people.
You can't pretend you don't represent a party.
You can't encourage somebody to sign an illegal agreement.
And the agreement included that if my client, Ali, violated the nondisclosure agreement, which was illegal, she owed all the money that they paid, which was not much for this kind of sexual harassment and the thousand dollars a day.
And you say, yeah, Nancy, you say illegal, because New Jersey, as I understand it, had banned NDAs from employment places of employment of several years ago.
Thanks to Loretta Weinberg and 2019 New Jersey banned NDAs for discrimination, harassment and retaliation claims.
They're unenforceable.
So a provision that she owed Trump $1,000 a day if she enforced it is blatantly illegal.
What is your client seeking and where do you go from here?
Because we know how a lot of these cases play out.
They tend to be lengthy and quite expensive.
Many of my clients come to me because they don't want to be silenced by the very people who abuse them.
They don't want to live their lives afraid that if they talk about their own lives and their own abuse, their abusers are going to be able to sue them.
So what my client wants is her voice back and to have the agreement voided.
And she doesn't right now.
She doesn't have any interest in suing and going through that long process.
She just wants to be done with them.
She doesn't want to be silenced by the very people who put her in the position of being sexually harassed.
Nancy Erika Smith.
And she wants other women to know.
So thank you.
Nancy, Erika Smith on this latest lawsuit brought against the Trump national golf course in New Jersey.
Nancy, thanks so much for your time.
Thank you.
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