The Justice Department last month moved to replace the president in a lawsuit under the Wastef Fall Act, which said Trump’s denial of the alleged attack was in response to reporters’ questions in June 2019 when he was president.
Carol’s attorney said in a filing in court Monday that “the Justice Department’s credentials have no credentials that Trump acted in his field of employment as president in defaming Carol.” “There is not a single person in the United States – neither the president nor anyone else – whose job description includes condemning women who have been sexually assaulted,” the filing said.
Carol’s lawyers said the Westfall Act does not cover the president because he is not an employee of the executive-level departments and he was not performing his official duties when he allegedly defamed him.
Carol’s lawyers wrote in the filing that, if accepted, the Justice Department’s extreme position would distort the law and discredit the president’s office. Prosecutors said if the judge does not deny the Justice Department’s motion, they are seeking a hearing on whether Trump will act in official duties when he allegedly convicted Carol.
CNN has reached out to the Justice Department for comment. The DOJ has until Oct. 19 to respond to Carol’s legal argument, which could lead to the lawsuit being settled or any evidence found before election day.
Last month, Attorney General William Barre confirmed that the White House had asked the Justice Department to handle the case. The request could delay the case further or kill him altogether because the Justice Department cannot be sued for defamation, said Steve Vladek, a CNN legal analyst and professor at the University of Texas Law School.
Carroll sued Trump in state court in November 2019 after he denied allegations of assault in a dressing room at the New York department store, Bergdorf Goodman, in the mid-1990s.
Trump’s private lawyers challenged the lawsuit, and in August August a state hearing court judge ruled that the lawsuit could go ahead. Carol’s lawyers have already filed a motion showing that they want to obtain a DNA sample from the president that compares to the DNA of an unidentified man obtained from a dress that says she attacked the accused. His lawyers also said they would try to oust Trump under oath.
On the deadline for Trump to file an appeal for a state court decision, the Justice Department sought a seat in federal court for his presidency.
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