Miss Pennsylvania Has 24 Hrs To Apologize Before Trump Sues for Massive Damages, Lawyer Warns [Video]
Donald Trump and his lawyer has given former Miss Pennsylvania Sheena Monnin 24 hours to apologize and retract her claim that the Miss USA pageant was a fraud. Trump's lawyer Michael Cohen spoke to TMZ live today.
Cohen said to TMZ: "The basis of the law suit is the defamation and the offensive remarks that Miss Monnin had made . In her agreement to participate in the pageant - has non-disparagement clauses throughout the document. Clearly the actions that she took are disparaging and worse than that they are inaccurate and they are lies." He goes on to say that it is an impossibility that the top five contestants would have been chosen prior to the pageant.
He said "you cannot fix a pageant with 12 people [judges] and on top of that the public gets to call in to make the determination who they think is the best."
Cohen said Donald believes in giving everyone a second chance. "If Miss Monnin, in writing, received by Mr Trump in 24 hours, apologizes and withdraws her utterly basless claim that the Miss USA pageant results were predetermined, then and only then, will Mr Trump and the Miss Universe organization not proceed with litigation against her, seeking massive damages for her defamatory and offensive remarks."
Donald said on the "Today" show this morning that he will sue Sheena Monnin for accusing the organization of fraud.
Miss Pennsylvania Sheena Monnin posted a statement on her Facebook page after Sunday's event, saying: "I have decided to resign my position as Miss Pennsylvania USA 2012. Effective immediately I have voluntarily, completely, and utterly removed myself from the Miss Universe Organization. In good conscience I can no longer be affiliated in any way with an organization I consider to be fraudulent, lacking in morals, inconsistent, and in many ways trashy. I do not support this system in any way. In my heart I believe in honesty, fair play, a fair opportunity, and high moralgrity, none of which in my opinion are part of this pageant system any longer. Thank you all for your support and understanding as I walk a road I never dreamed I'd need to walk, as I take a stand I never dreamed I'd need to take. After 10 years of competing in a pageant system I once believed in, I now completely and irrevocably separate myself in every way and on every level from the Miss Universe Organization. I remove my support completely and have turned in the title of Miss Pennsylvania USA 2012."
Monnin claims that her fellow contestants had even seen a list of the top five girls that were chosen - even before the show aired on Sunday evening. "I witnessed another contestant who said she saw the list of the Top 5 BEFORE THE SHOW EVER STARTED proceed to call out in order who the Top 5 were before they were announced on stage," she said. She said when the top five contestants were indeed the top five which she saw on the list, that is when she knew that it was rigged. "I decided to distance myself from an organization who did not allow fair play and whose morals did not match my own," she added.
