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   From: nowomr@protonmail.com   
      
   Justice Department reverses position, won't support shielding Trump in   
   original E. Jean Carroll lawsuit   
      
   By Graham Kates   
      
   July 11, 2023 / 6:27 PM / CBS News   
      
   The Justice Department on Tuesday reversed its position that former   
   President Donald Trump was shielded from a 2019 defamation lawsuit filed   
   by the writer E. Jean Carroll.   
      
   The government had originally argued that Trump was protected from   
   liability by the Westfall Act, because he was acting as a federal   
   employee. Under the act, federal employees are entitled to absolute   
   immunity from personal lawsuits for conduct occurring within the scope of   
   their employment.   
      
   Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Brian Boynton wrote in a   
   letter Tuesday to attorneys for Trump and Carroll that a jury's   
   determination in a separate civil lawsuit that Trump was liable for sexual   
   abuse and defamation of Carroll factored into the decision. That lawsuit   
   was filed in November 2022 and involved statements Trump made after his   
   presidency.   
      
   "The allegations that prompted the statements related to a purely personal   
   incident: an alleged sexual assault that occurred decades prior to Mr.   
   Trump's Presidency," Boynton wrote. "That sexual assault was obviously not   
   job-related."   
      
   Carroll filed her first lawsuit in 2019, while Trump was still president —   
   and after he accused her of "totally lying" when she said he sexually   
   assaulted her in a high-end New York City department store in the 1990s.   
   In October 2021, a federal judge in New York ruled that Trump was not   
   shielded from Carroll's suit. In 2022, the 2nd Circuit U.S. Court of   
   Appeals reversed the lower court's decision and suggested the Westfall Act   
   could protect Trump from liability in the case.   
      
   The lawsuit has remained active and has yet to go to trial. After the jury   
   found Trump liable in April, Carroll amended the suit, adding new   
   defamation claims related to more recent statements made by Trump, and he   
   filed a countersuit.   
      
   The Justice Department had initially argued that even though "the former   
   president made crude and offensive comments in response to the very   
   serious accusations of sexual assault" the law protecting employees like   
   the president from such a lawsuit should be upheld.   
      
   But the Justice Department reviewed that decision after the jury in   
   Carroll's second lawsuit in New York found Trump liable for sexual abuse   
   and defamation, Boynton wrote. It concluded that Trump had not acted "out   
   of a desire to serve the government" when he denied her claims.   
      
   Boynton also cited statements Trump has made about Carroll in the years   
   since his presidency ended.   
      
   "These post-Presidency statements, which were not before the Department   
   during the original scope certification in this case, tend to undermine   
   the claim that the former President made very similar statements at issue   
   in Carroll out of a desire to serve the government," Boynton wrote.   
      
   Carroll's attorney, Roberta Kaplan expressed gratitude for the   
   department's reversal and said in a statement, "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, and not as President of   
   the United States."   
      
   She added that "we look forward to trial in E Jean Carroll's original case   
   in January 2024."   
      
   An attorney for Trump did not immediately return a request for comment.   
   d   
      
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