Sensitive defeat Trump: after all no immunity in libel case E. Jean Carroll | Abroad

In a letter to Trump’s and Carroll’s lawyers, the U.S. Justice Department said there was no evidence that Trump acted only within the purview of his office and work as president when he denied assaulting and raping Carroll in the locker room in 1996 of a Manhattan department store in New York.

Carroll, 79, sued Trump, 77, for libel after denying all allegations and additionally claiming that he was the magazine’s former columnist. Elle didn’t know that she wasn’t his “type” and that she lied to boost sales of her memoirs.

However, a jury found it proven in May that Trump, who wants to run for president again in 2024, attacked and sexually assaulted the woman. No evidence was found for rape. Shortly after Trump was ordered to pay $5 million in damages, Carroll announced she would also be suing Trump for libel over statements he made after the verdict. The libel suit, in which Carroll is seeking $10 million, is scheduled for January 15, 2024.

Initially, the Justice Department under both the Trump and Biden administrations said Trump had acted within his responsibilities as president when answering reporters’ questions in 2019 about Carroll’s allegations. That essentially meant that Trump would be replaced by the Justice Department as the defendant and the case would likely be dismissed. But the judiciary has now reversed that. The change of course means that Trump can now also be prosecuted for statements made during his term in office – so far the case has only dealt with statements he made after his four years in office.

“We have always believed that Donald Trump made his defamatory statements about our client in June 2019 out of personal animosity, ill will and resentment, and not as president,” Carroll’s attorney Roberta Kaplan said in a statement.