Danny Wild-USA TODAY Sports
When the Department of Justice announced in 2021 that it would continue to represent Donald Trump in his defamation case against journalist E. Jean Carroll, it set up years of discomfort for the federal government in defending a former president accused of rape.
On Tuesday, the Justice Department said it would no longer shield Trump from the costly and contentious legal battle.
DOJ lawyers notified a federal judge in New York City that they would not assert that “Donald J. Trump was acting within the scope of his office and employment as President of the United States” when, in 2019, he denied ever raping Carroll—and added a pigheaded rebuttal that she wasn’t even his type.