DOJ finally gives up on Trump in E. Jean Carroll rape libel case

When the Justice Department announced in 2021 that it would continue to represent Donald Trump in his libel case against journalist E. Jean Carroll, it caused years of inconvenience for the federal government in defending a former president accused of rape.

On Tuesday, the Justice Department said it would no longer protect Trump from the costly and contentious legal battle.

DOJ lawyers told a federal judge in New York City that they would not allege that “Donald J. Trump acted within the scope of his office and employment as President of the United States” when he denied ever raping Carroll in 2019 – and added a stubborn retort that she wasn’t even his type.

Carroll sued him for defamation, and the suit has been brewing for years as Trump hid behind the incredible power of the country’s Justice Department and claimed that as a government official he deserved immunity.

Trump sues E. Jean Carroll over rape allegations

After Trump left the presidency and continued to call her a crazy liar, Carroll sued him a second time – a case that quickly went to trial this year and in which jurors quickly concluded that he had actually killed her in the locker room High school student sexually assaulted a clothing store in Manhattan in the late 1990s.

But the first case was still ongoing as the federal judge asked the DOJ to clarify whether its academic lawyers believed Trump was acting within the scope of his official duties when he ridiculed Carroll several years ago. Even though the country’s legal system has determined that the former president was a sexual abuser, it was still up to the Justice Department to determine whether his lies from the White House were somehow protected by federal policy.

While the details of this other defamation case are just as clear and dirty, its fate will be largely determined by this one question: whether Trump is protected by the Westfall Act — a law that says federal employees are entitled to absolute immunity when working within its scope act their employment.

In April, a District of Columbia appeals court made clear that the real question is whether the conduct of a federal employee — in this case, Trump — “is at least partially motivated by a purpose to serve the employer.”

The DOJ summed it up: Absolutely not.

In a letter filed with the court on Tuesday, Assistant Attorney General Brian M. Boynton said the DOJ “declines to issue a new Westfall Act certificate” to protect Trump.

Trump asks judge to throw out another defamation case against E. Jean Carroll

While he acknowledged that Justice Department lawyers had no evidence of Trump’s “state of mind” when he made offensive comments about Carroll, prosecutors concluded that Trump was on a personal vendetta – as evidenced by the fact that he maintained this even after he left office.

“The history between Ms. Carroll and Mr. Trump supports the finding that the former President’s statements were not sufficiently motivated by a purpose that could serve the administration,” he wrote. “And a jury has now found that Mr. Trump sexually abused Ms. Carroll long before he became president. This story supports the conclusion that Mr. Trump was motivated by a “personal grievance stemming from events that occurred many years before Mr. Trump’s presidency.”

U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan waited for the Justice Department’s response before moving forward with this other defamation case. So the Justice Department memo paves the way for another costly trial — and verdict — against Trump.

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