The Department of Justice has withdrawn its argument that Donald Trump was acting within the scope of his office as president when he allegedly defamed writer E. Jean Carroll, who accused him of rape in 2019.
The DOJ’s decision was revealed in a letter to Trump’s and Carroll’s lawyers in federal court in Manhattan. This means that the department will no longer try to protect Trump from civil liability in Carroll’s pending defamation lawsuit, which is scheduled for trial in January.
If approved, the DOJ’s effort would have effectively ended Carroll’s lawsuit.
The letter comes two months after a separate federal lawsuit by Carroll ended with a jury ordering Trump to pay her $5 million for sexually assaulting her in the dressing room of a New York department store in the mid-1990s and for defaming her when he denied her rape allegation last year.
The DOJ was not involved in that previous lawsuit because the alleged actions occurred before Trump’s presidency. Trump is appealing the verdict and jury award.
The DOJ cited a recent decision by a federal appeals court in Washington, D.C., which suggested that Trump could be personally sued if his statements about Carroll did not serve the U.S. government’s purpose.
The department also mentioned that Trump’s defamatory statements about Carroll continued after he left the White House and are included in a recent amended lawsuit filed by Carroll.
“The Department of Justice is declining to certify under the Westfall Act… that defendant Donald J. Trump was acting within the scope of his office and employment as President of the United States when he made the statements that form the basis of the defamation claims,” wrote Brian Boynton, principal deputy assistant attorney general of the DOJ’s civil division.
Carroll’s lawyer, Roberta Kaplan, expressed gratitude for the DOJ’s change in position and stated that they always believed Trump’s statements were motivated by personal animus and not his role as president.
“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,” Kaplan said.
A spokesperson for Trump accused the Biden administration of politically weaponizing the justice system and perpetuating a partisan sham.
Trump, who is pursuing the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, is facing charges related to illegal retention of classified government records and obstruction of justice.
In addition, a DOJ special counsel is overseeing a separate criminal investigation of Trump regarding his efforts to overturn the 2020 election results and his actions leading up to the January 6, 2021, Capitol riot.
In June 2019, Trump, then president, claimed Carroll was lying and driven by money and political animus when she publicly accused him of raping her in 1996 or 1997 at Bergdorf Goodman. Carroll sued him for defamation later that year.
The DOJ, under then-Attorney General Bill Barr, intervened in the lawsuit, arguing that the United States should replace Trump as the defendant because he was president when he made the comments in question. However, the district judge rejected the DOJ’s argument.
The department appealed the denial to the 2nd Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals and continued pushing its case under the Biden administration.
The appeals court then asked the federal appeals court in Washington to determine whether District of Columbia employment law allowed Trump to be sued for defamation based on comments made as a government employee.
In its letter on Tuesday, the DOJ acknowledged that D.C. law does not automatically consider statements made through official channels as being for official purposes. The letter also concluded that the circumstantial evidence regarding Trump’s intent in making the allegedly defamatory statements did not support a determination that he was sufficiently motivated by a desire to serve the U.S. government.