Writer E. Jean Carroll leaves a Manhattan court house after a jury found former President Donald Trump liable for sexually abusing her in a Manhattan department store in the 1990′s, New York City, May 9, 2023.
Spencer Platt | Getty Images
The Department of Justice on Tuesday dropped its argument that Donald Trump was acting within the scope of his office as president of the United States in 2019, when he allegedly defamed writer E. Jean Carroll, who had accused him of rape.
The DOJ’s move, disclosed in a letter to Trump’s and Carroll’s lawyers in federal court in Manhattan, means the department will no longer seek to effectively shield Trump from civil liability in Carroll’s pending defamation lawsuit against him, which is set for trial in January.
That effort, if it had been approved, would have killed Carroll’s lawsuit because the government can shield itself from civil liability under the doctrine of sovereign immunity.
The letter comes two months after a trial for a separate federal lawsuit by Carroll that ended with a jury ordering Trump to pay her $5 million for sexually abusing her in the dressing room in a New York department store in the mid-1990s, and for defaming her when he again denied her rape claim last year. The DOJ had not played a role in that lawsuit, as the alleged actions occurred outside of Trump tenure in the White House. Trump is appealing the verdict and jury award.
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