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Justice Department reverses position, won't support shielding Trump in
original E. Jean Carroll lawsuit

By Graham Kates

July 11, 2023 / 6:27 PM / CBS News

The Justice Department on Tuesday reversed its position that former
President Donald Trump was shielded from a 2019 defamation lawsuit filed
by the writer E. Jean Carroll.

The government had originally argued that Trump was protected from
liability by the Westfall Act, because he was acting as a federal
employee. Under the act, federal employees are entitled to absolute
immunity from personal lawsuits for conduct occurring within the scope of
their employment.

Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Brian Boynton wrote in a
letter Tuesday to attorneys for Trump and Carroll that a jury's
determination in a separate civil lawsuit that Trump was liable for sexual abuse and defamation of Carroll factored into the decision. That lawsuit
was filed in November 2022 and involved statements Trump made after his presidency.

"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," Boynton wrote. "That sexual assault was obviously not job-related."

Carroll filed her first lawsuit in 2019, while Trump was still president —
and after he accused her of "totally lying" when she said he sexually
assaulted her in a high-end New York City department store in the 1990s.
In October 2021, a federal judge in New York ruled that Trump was not
shielded from Carroll's suit. In 2022, the 2nd Circuit U.S. Court of
Appeals reversed the lower court's decision and suggested the Westfall Act could protect Trump from liability in the case.

The lawsuit has remained active and has yet to go to trial. After the jury found Trump liable in April, Carroll amended the suit, adding new
defamation claims related to more recent statements made by Trump, and he
filed a countersuit.

The Justice Department had initially argued that even though "the former president made crude and offensive comments in response to the very
serious accusations of sexual assault" the law protecting employees like
the president from such a lawsuit should be upheld.

But the Justice Department reviewed that decision after the jury in
Carroll's second lawsuit in New York found Trump liable for sexual abuse
and defamation, Boynton wrote. It concluded that Trump had not acted "out
of a desire to serve the government" when he denied her claims.

Boynton also cited statements Trump has made about Carroll in the years
since his presidency ended.

"These post-Presidency statements, which were not before the Department
during the original scope certification in this case, tend to undermine
the claim that the former President made very similar statements at issue
in Carroll out of a desire to serve the government," Boynton wrote.

Carroll's attorney, Roberta Kaplan expressed gratitude for the
department's reversal and said in a statement, "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."

She added that "we look forward to trial in E Jean Carroll's original case
in January 2024."

An attorney for Trump did not immediately return a request for comment.
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