DOJ moves to defend Trump in E. Jean Carroll defamation suit

Donald Trump.
(Image credit: Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images)

The Justice Department moved Tuesday to take over President Trump's defense in a defamation suit filed by author E. Jean Carroll, who accused Trump of raping her in a Manhattan department store dressing room during the 1990s.

Carroll sued Trump last year after he called her a liar and claimed he had never met her before. In court papers, Justice Department lawyers argued that they should be able to replace Trump's private attorneys because he made his comments about Carroll while in office. The DOJ cited the Federal Tort Claims Act, which is an extremely unusual move, University of Texas law professor Steve Vladeck told The New York Times. Lawyers for the government have never before tried to use the law to include the actions of a president conducted before he took office, he explained.

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Catherine Garcia, The Week US

Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.