Trump criticized the DOJ for withdrawing the E. Jean Carroll case

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Former US President Donald Trump speaks at The Faith and Freedom Coalition’s 2023 “Road to Majority” conference in Washington, US, June 24, 2023.

Tasos Katopodis | Reuters

Donald Trump on Wednesday fumed about the defamation lawsuit he faces from writer E. Jean Carroll, a day after the Department of Justice halted a three-year effort to immunize the former president from Carroll’s claims. .

“The DOJ will not defend me in the civil case of E. Jean Carroll, who is all part of the political Witch Hunt, who was lawyered up by an apolitical operative I just beat in another case, financed by a big political funder, and ‘convicted’ by a Clinton appointee who truly hates ‘TRUMP,'” he wrote on his social media site.

“The Carroll civil case against me is a Miscarriage of Justice and a total Scam,” Trump added.

The DOJ’s move Tuesday is the latest in a series of bad news for Trump in relation to Carroll, who has two civil lawsuits against him in US District Court in Manhattan.

Both cases relate to alleged defamatory statements Trump made at various times about Carroll while denying his claim that he raped her in the mid-1990s in a department dressing room. store in New York.

The second of Carroll’s lawsuits went to trial this spring. A jury in May awarded Carroll $5 million in damages from Trump after finding him responsible for sexually abusing her and defaming her for statements he made about her in late 2022 , when he was a private citizen. The jury did not find Trump liable for rape.

The first suit, related to statements Trump made about Carroll in 2019, when he was still president, is scheduled to begin trial in January.

E. Jean Carroll, former rape accuser of US President Donald Trump, leaves Manhattan Federal Court as the civil case goes into deliberation, in New York City, May 8, 2023.

David Dee Delgado | Reuters

Since 2020, the Justice Department has argued that Trump should be replaced as a defendant in that case by the US government, due to the fact that he was president at the time he made the controversial comments.

That effort, played out in a federal district court and two federal appeals courts, stalled the lawsuit for nearly three years.

If the DOJ’s effort succeeds, it would effectively kill Carroll’s first lawsuit, as the federal government can protect itself from civil claims under the doctrine of sovereign immunity.

But on Tuesday, the DOJ dropped its bid, clearing the way for Carroll’s case to proceed to trial. The department cited a recent appeals court ruling and other factors, saying “there is no longer sufficient basis to conclude that the former President was motivated by ‘more than a trivial’ desire to serve the Government of the United States.”

The DOJ’s move leaves Trump with the chance that another jury will find that he defamed Carroll and order him to pay more money damages, just as the 2024 Republican presidential primary season begins. Trump is currently the leading contender in that race.

“The statements I made about Carroll are true,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social site on Wednesday.

From L-R: former President Donald Trump, E. Jean Carroll, John Johnson and Ivana Trump at an NBC party, late 1980s.

Source: US District Court in Manhattan

“I didn’t Rape her (I won that at trial) and other than for this case, I HAVE NO IDEA WHO HE IS, WHAT HE IS, OR ANYTHING ABOUT HIM.” he wrote.

Trump also wrote that the first trial, which he lost, “was very unfair, where the other side could do and show almost anything they wanted, and our side was largely and wrongly shut down by an absolute that is hostile, biased, and out. of the control judge.”

Trump then said he was appealing the jury’s verdict, which he called a “travesty of justice.”

CNBC requested comment from Carroll’s legal team about Trump’s new statements.

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