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Biden’s Justice Department argues that Trump should be replaced in a defamation lawsuit. E. Jane Carroll accused Trump of defamation after he denied allegations of rape in 2020, and the Trump Department of Justice previously said he was acting in a government role rather than personally. See more stories on the Insider Business page.
The Justice Department said it should replace former President Donald Trump in a defamation suit brought by magazine columnist E Jane Carroll.
Carroll Trump has been accused of sexual assault. The lawsuit stems from his response to her accusations.
“President Trump responded at the time to Mrs. Carroll’s serious allegations of sexual assault to statements that questioned her credibility as crude and disrespectful,” State Department lawyers wrote in a briefing Monday. “But this issue is not about whether Mr. Trump’s response was appropriate. Nor does it turn out to be the credibility of Mrs. Carroll’s allegations.”
The Justice Department says that because Trump was working in a government role, his statements were made within the “scope” of his job, so the defendant should not be personally in the case. They said he was answering questions put to him as a “chief,” adding that “elected government officials can – and often should – address allegations of personal wrongdoing that cast doubt on their suitability for office.”
“Speaking to the public and the press on matters of public interest is undoubtedly part of the elected official’s job,” the memo said. “Thus, the courts have consistently and repeatedly held that allegedly defamatory statements made in this context fall within the scope of the employment of elected officials—including when such statements were requested through press inquiries about the official’s private life.”
Last year, Carol Trump was accused of raping her in Bergdorf Goodman’s locker room in the mid-1990s. She sued him after he denied the allegations, saying that Carroll was trying to “sell a book” and claimed he had never met her.
He also said she’s not his type.
Trump was initially a defendant in the case as a private citizen, but his Department of Justice tried to replace him with the United States, claiming that the case was in fact against a federal employee, not Trump personally. This effort was rejected by a federal judge last October.
Then Trump’s Justice Department appealed the ruling in January. However, the Biden Department of Justice continued the Trump administration’s efforts when it submitted the memo on Monday.
The White House did not respond to Insider’s request for comment at press time, but a spokesman for Andrew Bates told Politico: “The Department of Justice has not consulted the White House about the decision to provide this briefing or its contents. While we will not be commenting on this ongoing litigation, the American people know very well that the President Biden and his team have very different standards from their predecessors regarding what counts as acceptable statements.”
In an email statement, Carol’s attorney Roberta Kaplan told Insider she is disturbed by continued efforts to defend Trump.
“It is appalling that Donald Trump raped E. Jane Carroll in a New York City department store many years ago,” Kaplan said. “But it is really shocking that the current Department of Justice is allowing Donald Trump to get away with lying about it, thus depriving our client of her day in court. The position of the Department of Justice is not only legally wrong, it is morally wrong because it gave federal officials a free license to cover up misconduct. Private sexual behavior by taunting any woman who has the courage to come forward with public brutality.”
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