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E Jean Carroll, 76, alleges that Trump sexually assaulted her in the locker room of the luxurious Bergdorf Goodman department store on New York’s Fifth Avenue in the mid-1990s.
FILE: United States President Donald Trump, accompanied by members of the coronavirus task force, speaks during a briefing on the coronavirus pandemic in the White House press conference room on March 25, 2020 in Washington, DC. Image: AFP
NEW YORK – A New York judge on Tuesday rejected an attempt by the United States Department of Justice to defend Donald Trump against a lawsuit by a prominent American columnist who says the president violated it.
E Jean Carroll, 76, alleges that Trump sexually assaulted her in the locker room of the luxurious Bergdorf Goodman department store on New York’s Fifth Avenue in the mid-1990s.
She sued the Republican billionaire in November 2019 in upstate New York, charging him with defamation for saying she was “totally lying” about the assault.
Trump has denied the accusation and said in a June 2019 interview that he had never met Carroll and that she was “not my type.”
In September, the federal Justice Department asked the state court hearing the case if it could replace one of Trump’s personal attorneys, Marc Kasowitz, who had previously failed to get the lawsuit dismissed.
The department argued that Trump was “acting within the purview of his office or employment” when he made the allegedly defamatory comments and could therefore be defended by government attorneys.
The move had threatened to curb the lawsuit, as the government cannot be sued for defamation, but District Judge Lewis Kaplan on Tuesday dismissed the department’s argument.
“His comments (from Trump) concerned an alleged sexual assault that took place several decades before he took office, and the allegations are unrelated to official US business,” the judge wrote.
“To conclude otherwise, the court would be required to take the view that virtually everything the president does is in the public interest by virtue of his office.
“The government has not supported that theory and the court rejects it as being too expansive,” he added.
Carroll welcomed the ruling.
“As the judge acknowledged today, the question of whether President Trump raped me 20 years ago in a department store is at the ‘heart’ of this lawsuit,” he said in a statement.
“We can finally answer that question again and get the truth out.”
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