Donald Trump’s use of the Justice Department as his personal lawyer—and Attorney General William Barr’s enthusiastic participation—has the department claiming in court that Trump denied having raped E. Jean Carroll as part of his official duties. Federal employees are immune from defamation claims over things said and done while performing their jobs, so if Trump’s denial of a rape that happened in the 1990s was an official act, then he’s immune and the lawsuit is effectively dismissed.
According to Justice Department lawyers, Trump’s denial of Carroll’s allegations—and, apparently, his accompanying sneer that “She’s not my type”—“addressed matters relating to his fitness for office as part of an official White House response to press inquiries.”
Trump’s private lawyers originally tried to get Caroll’s lawsuit tossed from state court because, essentially, he’s the president and that means he can do what he wants. When that didn’t work, raising the prospect that Trump would have to provide a DNA sample to be tested against the dress Caroll was wearing at the time, Trump brought in the Justice Department (which, bonus, means he doesn’t have to pay his lawyers!) to try and make the whole thing go away.
As Carroll’s lawyers wrote in response to the Justice Department’s argument, “There is not a single person in the United States—not the president and not anyone else—whose job description includes slandering women they sexually assaulted.”
Trump’s efforts to bury yet another credible accusation of sexual assault against him are one thing. The Justice Department being perverted from a federal agency with a mission “to ensure fair and impartial administration of justice for all Americans” to being a taxpayer-funded personal law firm for one family—don’t forget that the Justice Department is also taking action against a book about Melania Trump—is far, far worse. Donald Trump thinks the presidency means the entire government works for him, not for the people. He’s found top officials, like William Barr, to go along with that. And, terrifyingly, despite Barr’s eagerness to act as Trump’s personal lawyer, Trump still doesn’t think Barr has gone far enough and is suggesting that he might find an attorney general who will travel even further down that path.