DOJ declines to certify that Trump has absolute immunity in E. Jean Carroll defamation case
Former President Donald Trump was not immune from civil action as a public official when he allegedly made defamatory statements against E. Jean Carroll in 2019, the Justice Department declared Tuesday.
The former “Ask E. Jean” advice columnist’s lawsuit against Trump, 77, alleges that the former president defamed her in a series of public statements in which he denied sexually abusing her in the mid-1990s.
Some of the allegedly defamatory statements came when Trump was president while others were made after a New York jury in May found the 45th president liable for sexually abusing Carroll inside Manhattan’s Bergdorf Goodman department store in 1996.
“[T]he Department has determined that it lacks adequate evidence to conclude that the former President was sufficiently actuated by a purpose to serve the United States Government to support a determination that he was acting within the scope of his employment when he denied sexually assaulting Ms. Carroll and made the other statements regarding Ms. Carroll that she has challenged in this action,” Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Brian Boynton wrote in a letter to counsel for Trump and Carroll on Tuesday.
Under the Westfall Act, the DOJ previously declared that Trump was immune to legal action from Carroll since the allegedly defamatory statements initially raised in the lawsuit were made while Trump was in office and acting within the scope of his employment as president.
But the Justice Department is now reversing its position.
“The evidence of Mr. Trump’s state of mind, some of which has come to light only after the Department last made a certification decision, does not establish that he made the statements at issue with a ‘more than insignificant’ purpose to serve the United States Government,” Boynton argued.
“The evidence of personal motivation that has been developed in this case outweighs any public-purpose inference one might draw in other circumstances,” he continues.
Carroll’s attorney celebrated the DOJ’s reversal on Tuesday, arguing that Trump’s comments were made out of “personal animus” and not in any way that served his job as president.
“We are grateful that the Department of Justice has reconsidered its position. 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. Now that one of the last obstacles has been removed, we look forward to trial in E Jean Carroll’s original case in January 2024,” Robbie Kaplan said in a statement to The Post.
Carroll’s legal team on Tuesday also asked a judge to dismiss a countersuit filed by Trump claiming that she defamed him by repeating her claim that he raped her.
“Here in federal court, where logic and reason rather than satire prevail, it is clear that Trump’s new counterclaim for defamation should be dismissed with prejudice,” Kaplan wrote in a court filing.
Kaplan further argues that Trump filed his counterclaim too late, in an attempt to “hold up yet again this otherwise trial-ready, much-delayed case.”
Carroll’s defamation trial against Trump is slated to begin on Jan. 15, 2024.
The 79-year-old former Elle magazine columnist is seeking $10 million in damages.
She was previously awarded $5 million in damages when Trump was found by a jury to be liable for sexually abusing her.
