Donald Trump’s lawyers argued in the District of Columbia’s highest local court Tuesday that the former president’s allegedly defamatory remarks about New York author E. Jean Carroll, who claims he raped her in the 1990s, fell within the scope of his government duties at the time.
(Bloomberg) — Donald Trump’s lawyers argued in the District of Columbia’s highest local court Tuesday that the former president’s allegedly defamatory remarks about New York author E. Jean Carroll, who claims he raped her in the 1990s, fell within the scope of his government duties at the time.
Trump maintains that he was acting on behalf of the American people in June 2019 when he denied Carroll’s allegation — including by accusing her of fabricating the rape to help sell a book and criticizing her appearance by saying: “Number one, she’s not my type.”
The hearing in Washington before a full panel of judges will determine if Trump’s comments were protected by local employment law because he was acting to protect the integrity of his employer, the US government. Carroll, who was present for the hearing, argues Trump’s comments were made for purely personal motives.
The fight has implications for Trump as he he seeks to return to the White House in 2024. If Trump prevails, Carroll’s underlying defamation suit against him, set to go to trial in April in Manhattan, will be tossed out. Trump has long denied raping Carroll and argued that she forced him to comment about her by making the allegation public.
“There exists a great public interest in having a president with a maximum ability to deal fearlessly with the American people” when he’s accused of wrongdoing, Trump attorney Alina Habba said at the hearing. “This was thrust upon him and he was responding to the press in his job,” she added later.
The federal appeals court in Manhattan previously ruled that Trump qualified as an employee of the federal government under a law that protects government workers from lawsuits that relate to their official duties. The New York court then asked the DC Court of Appeals to determine if Trump’s comments about Carroll qualified as an employment duty under local law.
Read More: Trump Rape Accuser Carroll Pressed on Claims in Deposition
Carroll’s lawyer, Joshua Matz, said the argument that Trump’s comments were made in order to protect the US government is contradicted by the former president’s “long history” of “engaging in these kinds of highly personal attacks” against women who accuse him of misconduct.
“Where you see somebody before during and after the presidency engaging in very similar conduct — even if, as Ms. Habba suggests, he’s doing it now for the greater good of the American people — that tends to suggest that the motivation isn’t really anything relating to their job,” Matz said. “It’s just how they roll — it’s their m.o.”
The Justice Department has sided with Trump in the case, arguing that sitting presidents deserve broad discretion to respond to public allegations, though the government did not defend the tone of Trump’s comments about Carroll.
Carroll in November filed a separate battery suit against Trump and included a fresh claim of defamation over a statement Trump made about her last year.
Parts of Trump’s deposition in the litigation could become public in the next few days, a New York judge has ruled.
Trump has strenuously denied Carroll’s claim that he raped her more than two decades ago in a department store dressing room in Manhattan.
–With assistance from Zoe Tillman.
(Updates with detail from the court hearing.)
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