The US Department of Justice on Tuesday asked to defend US President Donald Trump against a lawsuit by a prominent US columnist who has said that the president raped her, a move that would likely delay the case.
Jean Carroll, 76, has alleged that Trump sexually assaulted her in the changing room at the luxury Bergdorf Goodman department store on Fifth Avenue in New York City in the mid-1990s.
She sued the Republican billionaire in November last year in New York state, accusing him of defamation for saying that she was “totally lying” about the assault.
Photo: AP
Trump had previously denied the allegation, saying in a June last year interview that he had never met Carroll and she was “not my type.”
The case has been ongoing, and the judge has denied a request by one of Trump’s personal lawyers, Marc Kasowitz, to dismiss the suit.
On Tuesday, the department asked in a document filed in state court to substitute for Kasowitz, on the grounds that Trump was “acting within the scope of his office or employment” when he made the allegedly defamatory remarks and could thus be defended by government lawyers.
The department also asked that the case be transferred to the Manhattan federal court.
Carroll’s lawyer, Roberta Kaplan, said the department’s “shocking” intervention is likely to delay the case, even though Trump — who is seeking re-election in November — was “soon going to be required to produce documents, provide a DNA sample and sit for a deposition.”
“Trump’s effort to wield the power of the US government to evade responsibility for his private misconduct is without precedent, and shows even more starkly how far he is willing to go to prevent the truth from coming out,” she said in a statement.
Carroll also slammed the department’s move.
“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,” she was quoted as saying in the statement.
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