A federal judge has denied the Justice Department’s effort to intervene in E. Jean Carroll’s defamation suit against President Donald Trump.
What We Know:
- In her 2019 book, Carroll alleged that Trump raped her in a Manhattan department store in the ’90s. Trump denied the allegations and told reporters that this was her attempt to market the book and that “she’s not my type”.
- The DOJ attempted to substitute itself as the defendant in the case and replace Trump. This would have effectively ended the case as the federal government cannot be sued for defamation.
- US District Judge Lewis Kaplan ruled that the DOJ could not replace Trump as the defendant because he “is not an ’employee of the Government,’ as Congress defined the term,” and that the lawsuit is not against the United States. Kaplan’s ruling allows for Trump to be sued personally in the defamation case.
- Judge Kaplan also rejected the DOJ’s argument that Trump’s comments about Carroll were within the scope of the federal government, writing “while commenting on the operation of government is part of the regular business of the United States, commenting on sexual assault allegations unrelated to the operation of government is not.”
- Carroll filed her defamation suit in a New York state court and the case is now set to proceed to federal court. Carroll’s attorneys can move forward in taking Trump’s deposition under oath and obtaining a DNA sample for the case.
Carroll commented on the decision, saying “When I spoke out about what Donald Trump did to me in a department store dressing room, I was speaking out against an individual. When Donald Trump called me a liar and denied that he had ever met me, he was not speaking on behalf of the United States.”
