Demand Made In Lawsuit Charging That Racism
Underlies Trump’s Immigration Agenda
Boston, MA (November 14, 2018) – In what is believed to be the first demand made in a pending federal lawsuit, Lawyers for Civil Rights (LCR) today issued subpoenas to MGM Holdings Inc. and Trump Productions, LLC, demanding that they immediately produce to LCR “any and all unaired video footage … created during the production of The Apprentice in which Donald J. Trump … uses racial and/or ethnic slurs.” The subpoenas are part of a lawsuit, Centro Presente v. Trump, alleging that Trump’s termination of Temporary Protected Status (TPS), a life-saving humanitarian program for immigrants from Haiti, El Salvador, and Honduras, was racially motivated and, therefore, unconstitutional.
Numerous individuals, including a former Apprentice producer and former contestant Omarosa Manigault, have publicly confirmed that the video footage subject to the subpoena exists. However, MGM has thus far refused to release any outtakes from the show, citing unspecified “contractual and legal requirements.”
Trump Productions Subpoena scan LCRMGM subpoena scan LCR
“Trump’s racially biased views are central to our TPS case in which the President is a named Defendant,” said Oren Nimni, LCR’s attorney litigating the case. “Access to these videotapes will help further demonstrate that Defendant Trump holds racially-biased views that impact his policy- and decision-making,” noted Attorney Nimni.
Bill Pruitt, the producer of Seasons 1 and 2 of the Apprentice, has publicly stated that during the taping of the show, Defendant Trump made “unfathomably despicable” racist comments and that those videos “are somewhere, in some warehouse.”
Attorney Nimni also noted that producer Pruitt has indicated that Defendant Trump’s derogatory comments were “very much a racist issue,” making the tapes highly relevant to the pending legal action.
LCR’s lawsuit was filed in February 2018 on behalf of Centro Presente, Haitian Americans United, and courageous individuals with TPS, a humanitarian program providing immigration relief for individuals from designated countries that experienced armed conflict or natural disasters. The lawsuit is pending before U.S. District Court Judge Denise Casper, who in July 2018 rejected the Trump Administration’s attempts to dismiss the case and to dismiss Trump as a named defendant in the case.
