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WASHINGTON — The Justice Department on Tuesday reversed a holding first made by the department during Donald Trump’s term in office and said the ex-president is not immune from a second defamation suit by writer E. Jean Carroll.
Carroll, who in May won a $5 million judgement against Trump for sexual abuse and defamation, has another defamation suit pending against him for comments he made her about during his presidency.
In a letter to attorneys for Trump and Carroll, the Department of Justice said it has “determined that it lacks adequate evidence” to conclude that Trump was acting within the scope of his employment as president or serving a government function when he criticized Carroll.
The letter clears the way for another defamation trial against Trump currently scheduled to begin in January.
Carroll wrote about Trump’s alleged sexual assault in a 2019 memoir, accusing him of attacking her in a New York department store more than 20 years ago. The case has been mired down in appeals, many of them involving the question of Trump’s legal standing as president.
In its letter and a court filing, the Justice Department also said new evidence against Trump has surfaced since he left office, citing the recent civil trial and harsh comments that Trump made about Carroll after the verdict.
The new evidence “supports an inference that Mr. Trump was motivated by a ‘personal grievance’ stemming from events that occurred many years prior to Mr. Trump’s presidency,” the Justice Department said.
The reversal also means the Justice Department will not help defend Trump at the upcoming defamation trial, though few predicted the move.
Trump has alleged he did not know Carroll and accused her of making up a story to hurt him politically.
The Trump Justice Department made a determination that he could not be sued because he was responding to Carroll’s accusations in his role as president.
After a civil trial in New York that focused on the 1996 incident itself, a jury found Trump liable for sexual abuse and defamation, assessing damages adding up to $5 million. Trump has appealed that verdict.
Carroll has since requested more damages over comments Trump made since the trial.
Trump, meanwhile, has countersued Carroll and is seeking to dismiss the second defamation case.
Carroll’s attorney, Robbie Kaplan, said they 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,” Kaplan said, “and not as President of the United States.”
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