Donald Trump May Not Be Entitled To Immunity In E. Jean Carroll Defamation Lawsuit
By Kristin Myers on July 13, 2023 at 1:00 PM EDT
Former U.S. President Donald Trump may not be entitled to immunity in the E. Jean Carroll defamation lawsuit, according to the Justice Department.
On Wednesday, the DOJ reversed its position and said that they believe that the former POTUS should no longer be entitled to immunity for his response to E. Jean Carroll’s accusations of sexual assault.
DOJ Believes Donald Trump Should Not Longer Be Entitled To Immunity
In 2019, Carroll filed a defamation lawsuit against the former President for statements that he made while he was in office, denying her allegation of rape decades earlier, claims that he didn’t know her, and statements that she was not his “type,” according to CNN, who noted that this is a different lawsuit from the sexual assault and defamation case that went to trial this year and resulted in a jury awarding Carroll $5 million in damages.
In a letter to attorneys for Trump and Carroll, DOJ lawyers said that “the Department has determined that it lacks adequate evidence” to conclude that he was serving the U.S. government or serving under 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.”
Federal Jury Awarded Carroll $5 Million In Damages In May
In May 2023, a federal jury found that Trump had sexually abused Carroll in a luxury department store dressing room in the spring of 1996. They subsequently awarded her $5 million for battery and defamation. Trump is facing no jail time for the verdict, which he is currently in the process of appealing. In light of Trump’s statements and the jury verdict, the DOJ is reversing its opinion on whether or not Trump should be granted immunity in the new defamation case.
After considering the evidence, lawyers for the DOJ wrote that the evidence “from Mr. Trump’s deposition, the jury verdict in Carroll II, and the new allegations in the Amended Complaint, the Department has determined that there is no longer a sufficient basis to conclude that the former President was motivated by ‘more than an insignificant’ desire to serve the United States Government,” lawyers for the Justice Department wrote.
They continued, “And a jury has now found that Mr. Trump sexually assaulted Ms. Carroll long before he became President. That history 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 wrote.
The judge has scheduled the trial for January, which also marks the start of the presidential primary season.
