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US Justice Department seeks to defend Trump in E. Jean Carroll defamation lawsuit

US Justice Department seeks to defend Trump in E. Jean Carroll defamation lawsuit

Donald Trump

The US Justice Department on Tuesday asked to take over the defence of President Donald Trump ina defamation lawsuit that was filed against him by E. Jean Carroll. She has accused Trump of sexual assault.

The move by the Justice Department of defending Trump at taxpayer's expense comes amidst the ongoing criticism that it has acted in Donald Trump's personal interests. According to the Justice Department, it must take over because Trump's comments on the defamation lawsuit came while he was in office.

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"President Trump was acting within the scope of his office as President of the United States at the time of the incidents out of which the Plaintiff's defamation claim arose. Indeed, when providing the challenged statements, the President was speaking to or responding to inquiries from the press, much as the elected officials in the cases cited above were speaking to the press or making other public statements at the time of their challenged actions," the Justice Department's court filing stated.

"The Westfall Act accordingly requires the substitution of the United States as defendant in this action," the department added.

E. Jean Carroll filed the lawsuit in November last year, where she alleged that Donald Trump had sexually assaulted her in a dressing room at luxury Manhattan department store Bergdorf Goodman in the 1990s. Trump denied these allegations, he called it "totally false" and said that he "never met this person in my life."

"Even in today's world, that argument is shocking," said Roberta Kaplan, Carroll's Lawyer on the Justice Department's logic.

After the move by the Justice Department, Carroll issued a statement on Tuesday, which said: "Today’s actions demonstrate that Trump will do everything possible, including using the full powers of the federal government, to block discovery from going forward in my case before the upcoming election to try to prevent a jury from ever deciding which one of us is lying."