The Playmate, the porn star, the Apprentice, and the President: as three women go to court, is Trump’s past catching up with him?

Haunted by Russia and beset by internal strife, Donald Trump’s White House is also increasingly being forced to confront allegations from the president’s past, as an adult film star, a former Playboy model and a one-time Apprentice contestant press court cases.

In court, on social media and with upcoming television interviews, these women are making allegations about Trump’s past sexual exploits. And while previous accusations have not derailed the thrice-married businessman, now they are surfacing in the context of the rising #MeToo movement.

The White House has little to say publicly about the accusations, which are only likely to get louder.

Playboy’s 1998 Playmate of the Year Karen McDougal claims she had an affair with Trump in 2006. She filed a lawsuit in California this week seeking to invalidate a confidentiality agreement with a company that owns the supermarket tabloid National Enquirer.

Trump is also under heightened pressure after a New York City judge ruled Tuesday that a defamation lawsuit by Summer Zervos, a former contestant on The Apprentice, can move forward while the president is in office. Zervos has accused Trump of unwanted sexual contact in 2007 after she had appeared on the show with him, and sued after he dismissed the claims as made up. Her lawsuit seeks an apology and the token amount of at least US$2,914.

It’s unclear whether Trump would have to appear at any of the proceedings, but Zervos’ lawyers have said they want to depose him. The judge asked during arguments in December whether video conferencing and other methods could be used to accommodate the president’s busy schedule.

That suit set the precedent for the Zervos case to move forward. In 1997, the Supreme Court ruled that a sitting president was not immune from civil litigation on something that happened before taking office and was unrelated to the office. Jones’ case was dismissed by a judge, then appealed. The appeal was still pending when Clinton agreed to pay US$850,000 to Jones to settle the case. He did not admit wrongdoing.

Trump’s legal team said they would appeal and ask that the case be put on hold until a final decision is reached.

In the case of the Playboy model, McDougal filed suit Tuesday in Los Angeles County Superior Court against American Media Inc, the company that owns the National Enquirer. It had paid her US$150,000 during the 2016 presidential election. The lawsuit alleges that McDougal was paid for the rights to her story of an affair, but the story never ran. It also alleges that Trump’s attorney, Michael Cohen, was secretly involved in her discussions with American Media.

Trump has consistently denied accusations from all three women pressing court cases. He has previously called his accusers “liars” and has deemed such reports “made up stuff.”

In an interview Wednesday with Associated Press, Clifford’s attorney, Michael Avenatti, teased that more details would come out on 60 Minutes, and said his office was checking out similar claims from six women who had come forward.

He said Clifford’s legal adversaries were “more seriously today than they were a couple of weeks ago. I’ll say that they should be taking us very seriously. Every time in my career that I’ve been underestimated, that has worked out really, really poorly for the other side at the end of the game.”