In a court filing Monday night, the Biden DOJ indicated it will continue to defend Trump in a defamation lawsuit brought by writer E. Jean Carroll.
The DOJ is continuing with the former guy’s defense that Trump was acting “within the scope of employment” as president when he said Carroll was “totally lying” about claims that he raped her in the mid 1990’s.
Justice Department lawyers wrote, “Then-President Trump’s response to Ms. Carroll’s serious allegations of sexual assault included statements that questioned her credibility in terms that were crude and disrespectful. But this case does not concern whether Mr. Trump’s response was appropriate. Nor does it turn on the truthfulness of Ms. Carroll’s allegations.”
By believing that Trump was an employee of the government and was acting “within the scope of employment,” the department should serve as the defendant in the case.
“When members of the White House media asked then-President Trump to respond to Ms. Carroll’s serious allegations of wrongdoing, their questions were posed to him in his capacity as President,” the Justice Department wrote in Monday’s reply brief. “Elected public officials can — and often must — address allegations regarding personal wrongdoing that inspire doubt about their suitability for office.”
Andrew Bates, White House spokesman, said in an emailed statement that the White House “was not consulted by DOJ on the decision to file this brief or its contents. While we are not going to comment on this ongoing litigation, the American people know well that President Biden and his team have utterly different standards from their predecessors for what qualify as acceptable statements.”
In the fall candidate Biden had openly criticized Trump trying to use the Justice Department as his “own law firm.”
“Can you remember any Republican president going out there, or former Democratic president, ’Go find that guy and prosecute him’? You ever hear that? Or: ‘By the way, I’m being sued because a woman’s accused me of rape. Represent me. Represent me.’ … What’s that all about? What is that about?” Biden said at the time.
CNN, Axios, and BuzzFeedNews carried this story.