DOJ backs down from arguing Trump’s comments about E. Jean Carroll while president were shielded from lawsuits, all but clearing the way for second trial
NEW YORK — The Justice Department on Tuesday backed down from its argument that Donald Trump couldn’t be sued for comments he made about E. Jean Carroll from the White House.
Government officials revealed their determination in a letter to Trump’s lawyers and a Manhattan federal court filing to Judge Lewis Kaplan, who presides over Carroll’s two lawsuits against Trump.
Carroll prevailed on both of her claims in the second suit at trial in May, winning $5 million in damages from the jury that found Trump sexually abused her inside a Bergdorf Goodman changing room in Midtown in 1996 and defamed her when she spoke out decades later.
Complicated legal stumbling blocks have bogged down the first suit since Carroll filed it in 2019. Trump and his DOJ argued he was immune from being sued for anything he said about her as president when she first accused him of sexual assault. President Joe Biden’s DOJ supported that position when he took office, saying it was defending federal employees’ right not to be sued, not the alleged specific conduct.
Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Brian Boynton told Trump’s lawyers the DOJ had changed its mind, lacking “adequate evidence” showing then-President Trump was acting as president when he called Carroll a “liar” from the White House and infamously denied the assault because she was “not my type.”
“The evidence of Mr. Trump’s state of mind, some of which has come to light only after the Department last made a certification decision, does not establish that he made the statements at issue with a ‘more than insignificant’ purpose to serve the United States Government,” Boynton wrote.
“No direct evidence of the former President’s state of mind in making these statements is available.”
The determination all but clears the way for Carroll’s first lawsuit to proceed to trial early in 2024.
"We 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, and not as president,” Carroll’s lawyer Roberta Kaplan said. “Now that one of the last obstacles has been removed, we look forward to trial.”
Trump’s lawyer did not immediately respond to a request seeking comment.
© New York Daily NewsFulton County DA empaneling new grand jury to weigh Trump election chargesFani Willis has signaled that charging decisions could come this summer.The Atlanta-area prosecutor investigating efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election in Georgia is empaneling a new grand jury that could ultimately decide whether to approve charges against former President Donald Trump.
Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis met Tuesday with prospective jurors in front of Judge Robert McBurney at a courthouse near Atlanta, where she has been probing whether Trump and his allies' overtures to state officials in late 2020 amounted to criminal activity.
In April, Willis signaled publicly that potential charges could be brought as soon as this summer.
Willis officially launched the probe in February 2021, sparked in part by the now-infamous Jan. 2, 2021, phone call Trump made to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger in which Trump pleaded with Raffensperger to "find 11,780 votes," the exact number Trump needed to win Georgia.
Trump has denounced the investigation and has repeatedly defended his phone call to Raffensperger, which he called "perfect."
In January, a previous special grand jury seated by Willis issued its final report, which found "by a unanimous vote that no widespread fraud took place in the Georgia 2020 presidential election that could result in overturning that election."
That grand jury did not have the ability to return an indictment -- only to make recommendations concerning criminal prosecutions.
The publicly released portion of their report revealed no details about any such recommendations, beyond recommending that prosecutors seek indictments against witnesses who they believe may have lied during their testimony.
Watch video in link: https://abcnews.go.com/US/fulton-county-da-empaneling-new-grand-jury-weigh/story?id=101101070Fulton County to seat new grand jury in Trump Georgia 2020 election probe caseThe district attorney previously said July 17 is the earliest a Fulton County grand jury could hear evidence in the Trump investigation.Watch:
