DOJ declines to certify that Trump has absolute immunity in E. Jean Carroll defamation caseBy Victor Nava and Priscilla DeGregory
July 11, 2023
Former President Donald Trump was not immune from civil action as a public official when he allegedly made defamatory statements against E. Jean Carroll in 2019, the Justice Department declared Tuesday.
The former “Ask E. Jean” advice columnist’s lawsuit against Trump, 77, alleges that the former president defamed her in a series of public statements in which he denied sexually abusing her in the mid-1990s.
Some of the allegedly defamatory statements came when Trump was president while others were made after a New York jury in May found the 45th president liable for sexually abusing Carroll inside Manhattan’s Bergdorf Goodman department store in 1996.
“[T]he Department has determined that it lacks adequate evidence to conclude that the former President was sufficiently actuated by a purpose to serve the United States Government to support a determination that he was acting within the scope of his employment when he denied sexually assaulting Ms. Carroll and made the other statements regarding Ms. Carroll that she has challenged in this action,” Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Brian Boynton wrote in a letter to counsel for Trump and Carroll on Tuesday.
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Source:
https://nypost.com/2023/07/11/trump-no-longer-immune-in-e-jean-carroll-defamation-case-doj/
