A partner from Herbert Smith Freehills helped Donald Trump to sue a comedian who challenged the president-elect to prove he wasn't fathered by an orangutan.

In 2013, US comedian Bill Maher mocked Trump's offer to donate $5 million to charity if Barack Obama produced college transcripts proving that he was born in the US. On his show, Maher offered to donate a matching sum if Trump released a birth certificate proving that his father was not an orangutan.

Maher said, "Just like we're the gun country, we're the joke country. We love our free speech, and we love our celebrities getting taken down a peg. So Don, just suck it up like everybody else".

Instead, Trump instructed Herbert Smith Freehills partner Scott Balber, who was then a lawyer at Cooley in New York, to send Maher a copy of Trump's birth certificate and demand payment of the $5m. In an accompanying letter, the man who is now HSF's US head of investigations and financial services litigation informed Maher that the evidence proved Trump "is not the 'spawn of his mother having sex with an orangutan'".

     

Balber then sent two follow-up demands before filing a bizarre breach of contract claim in the Los Angeles Superior Court claiming that "a contract was formed between Maher and Mr Trump as of the moment the Acceptance letter was sent". Balber's suit demanded payment of Trump's legal costs, appropriate "further relief" and the $5 million, which he specified should be sent to Trump rather than to the nominated charities directly.


  We're all Scott now.

The claim was subsequently dropped. RollOnFriday asked HSF whether Trump paid Balber's bill, but a spokesman declined to comment, or pass on Balber's memories of kowtowing to an orange douche.

330129049 Trump v Maher La Superior Court Doc Complaint 1 1 by RollOnFriday on Scribd

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Comments

Roll On Friday 10 November 16 22:25

I'm more aghast at the pleadings than I am at the action itself. You could probably remove every other word (and probably every other paragraph) and it would read about the same.

Roll On Friday 11 November 16 12:11

note that Trump (sorry "Mr Trump", only Maher is surname sans title...) didn't think to sue Maher for calling him a terrible racist. Presume there was a fear of a "fair comment" defence?