Former President Donald Trump reacted with fury to news that the US Department of Justice no longer considers him immune from a defamation lawsuit from E Jean Carroll.
Ms Caroll is suing Mr Trump for denying that he sexually assaulted her in Manhattan during the 1990s. In 2019, while serving as president, Mr Trump said that Ms Carroll was “not my type,” and that the alleged assault “never happened.”
If a federal employee is sued for defamation over actions connected to their job, the DOJ can step in as the defendant and effectively stop the lawsuit from proceeding on the grounds that the federal government cannot be sued for defamation.
Mr Trump was relying on the federal government’s defence in the defamation case, but now, the DOJ has changed course and concluded that his comments about Ms Carroll were not sufficiently connected to the performance of his duties as president.
It’s a blow for Mr Trump, who was found liable by a jury earlier this year for assaulting and defaming Ms Carroll and is appealing the $5m judgement against him.
“Crooked Joe Biden’s Targeted, Weaponized DOJ & FBI are a grave threat to our Democracy!” Mr Trump wrote in a post on the social media platform Truth Social. “They are doing Crooked’s DIRTY WORK in attacking and persecuting “TRUMP,” and only doing so because I am CRUSHING DeSanctimonious and Biden in the Polls,” Mr Trump wrote.
“This is planned Election Interference of the highest magnitude, and used to only happen in Third World Countries,” he continued. “Now, sadly and terribly, it is happening right here in America, and must be stopped if our Country is to survive. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!!!”
The Justice Department’s reasoning for not stepping in to shield Mr Trump from liability is laid out in a letter that was filed in federal court in Manhattan on Tuesday.
“Although the statements themselves were made in a work context, the allegations that prompted the statements related to a purely personal incident: an alleged sexual assault that occurred decades prior to Mr. Trump’s Presidency,” Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Brian Boynton wrote.
Mr Boynton noted the alleged assault occurred many years before Mr Trump was a government employee and was not directly related to his work as president.
Roberta Kaplan, an attorney for Ms Carroll, applauded the government’s decision.
“We are grateful that the Department of Justice has reconsidered its position,” Mr Kaplan said. “We have always believed that Donald Trump made his defamatory statements about our client in June 2019 out of personal animus, ill will, and spite, and not as President of the United States. Now that one of the last obstacles has been removed, we look forward to trial in E. Jean Carroll’s original case in January 2024.”
Ms Carroll’s lawsuit is just one of a number of legal issues Mr Trump is dealing with as he attempts to reclaim the White House in next year’s election. The former president is also under federal indictment for allegedly mishandling classified documents and under indictment in Manhattan for his alleged role in a hush money payment scheme.
Mr Trump also still under investigation for his involvement in efforts to overturn the result of the 2020 presidential election.
