The Justice Department said Monday that President Trump should not be sued personally for denying the rape allegations because he made the statement while working in his official capacity as president.
Government prosecutors argued that they did not have Attorney General William P. President Trump v. E. in New York court of bar. Jean Carroll defended the decision to intervene in the defamation suit filed by the author.
Ms. Carroll said Mr. Trump raped her in a department store two decades ago and then falsely denied the attack while in office, calling her a liar and damaging her reputation.
But Justice Department lawyers say the accusation raises concerns about what happened decades before Mr. Trump became president, although his refusal was still an official act because he “addressed matters related to his fitness for his position as part of the White House’s official response.” Press Inquiry. “
“Given the President’s position in our Constitution, his role in communicating with the people is particularly significant,” the Justice Department wrote. “The President’s statements fall into his field of employment for a number of reasons.”
Sept., Despite unusual steps by the Justice Department seeking to intervene on Mr. Trump’s behalf, the lawsuit raises concerns about defamation claims from the 1990s, long before Mr. Trump became president.
With the help of legislation designed to protect federal employees from defamation claims in the performance of their duties, Mr. Bair sought to transfer the lawsuit from state court to federal district court in Manhattan and replace the federal government as Mr. Trump’s defendant.
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That maneuver, if approved by a judge, would have the practical effect of dismissing Mrs. Carroll’s claim, as most government employees are immune from defamation claims.
Earlier this month, Ms. Carroll’s lawyers attacked the effort in court papers, and Federal Judge, Lewis A. Kaplan denied it.
Ms. “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,” Carol’s lawyers wrote. Carol’s lawyers wrote.
In Monday’s filing, the Justice Department argued that Mr. Trump’s Ms. Not condemning Carol, but simply dismissing her allegations. The department said he fell within the scope of his official role as president, as allegations of rape – even a false one – could affect his job.
Ms. Carroll’s allegations “sought to take into account the health of the president’s office and required a response from the president to govern effectively,” the Justice Department said. “The president’s challenging statements were directly related to his role as president and executive branch leader.”
The controversy erupted during last week’s presidential campaign, when Democratic candidate Joseph R. Firm your own law.
“I am being prosecuted because a woman has accused me of rape. Introduce me Represent me, “said Mr. Biden sarcastically, as if adding to the President’s voice,” What is all this? ‘
A day after the requested transfer of the case, Mr. Barry told reporters in Chicago that it was routine to make the government a defendant in lawsuits against federal officials and that the action was taken at the request of the White House.
“The law is clear,” Mr. Bair said. “It simply came to our notice then. And the small hurricanes that go on are largely due to the strange political environment in which we live. “
In her court papers attacking the government’s move, Ms. Carol’s lawyers, Roberta A. Kaplan and Joshua Metz conceded that it would be normal for lower-level federal employees, such as letter carriers, to be replaced when lawsuits are filed against the government, not for the president.
Mrs. Carroll, a longtime consulting columnist for Elle Magazine, wrote in a book published last year and in an excerpt from a New York magazine that Mr. Trump attacked her in the dressing room of the luxury Manhattan department store Bergdorf Goodman in the mid-1990s.
Ms. According to Carroll’s account, Mr. Trump stopped her and said, “Hey, you’re that advice woman!”
She claimed that Mr. Trump threw her against the wall, pulled her china down, opened her pants and raped her.
In response, Mr. Trump denied that he ever met Ms. Carol met and accused him of lying, saying, “That’s not my type.” In a written statement, Mr. Trump also said that Ms. Carol “trying to sell a new book.”
He added, “It should be sold in the fiction section.”
The defamation suit is a legal tactic that “The Apprentice,” a former contestant on Mr. Trump’s reality television show, Summer Zerovs, has admitted in an attempt to force the president to swear in his allegations. That she was sexually harassed. Some women accused Mr. Trump of sexual harassment and assault during the 2016 election; He denied all the allegations by telling lies.
In the Carroll lawsuit, Mr. Trump, initially represented by private lawyers, sought to defer the case that, as a presiding president, he is exempt from civil litigation in state courts.
But in August, New York State Judge, Verna L. Sanders denied his request. She cited a U.S. Supreme Court ruling this summer that rejected Mr. Trump’s claim that, as president, he was exempt from the state’s criminal investigation. The controversy erupted after the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office introduced an accountant for Mr. Trump’s tax return.
The judge’s ruling meant Mr Trump would have to provide a DNA sample, as requested by Mrs Carroll’s lawyers, to ensure it matched the material on the dress. Ms. Carol said she wore it during the encounter.
Susan C. Beachy contributed to the research.
