A federal judge has rejected a US government request to drop Donald Trump as a defendant in a defamation lawsuit by a writer who says the president falsely denied raping her in a Manhattan department store 25 years ago.
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US District Judge Lewis Kaplan in Manhattan refused to let the government substitute itself for Trump as a defendant in former Elle magazine columnist E Jean Carroll's lawsuit.
Kaplan's decision is a defeat for Trump, because dropping him as a defendant would have shielded him from liability and likely doomed Carroll's defamation claim.
Acting at the behest of Attorney General William Barr, the Department of Justice has argued that Trump acted in his official capacity when denying Carroll's accusations and therefore could not be sued personally for defamation.
But the judge said Trump was not an "employee of the government" entitled to be shielded from Carroll's claims under the Federal Tort Claims Act.
Kaplan also said Trump did not make his statements within the scope of his "employment" as president.
Australian Associated Press
