The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Friday returned former Elle columnist E. Jean Carroll's initial defamation case against former President Donald Trump to the district court judge who had ruled previously that Trump was not acting within the scope of his employment as president when he allegedly defamed her and denied her claims that he'd raped her in the 1990s.
Trump has argued that the Department of Justice should be substituted for him in the case because when he made his comments about Caroll's claims, he was president and had been acting in his official capacity as a federal government employee, reported ABC News.
Carroll alleges that Trump raped her in the dressing room at the Bergdorf Goodman department store, and says he defamed her in 2019 when he denied her claims, called her a liar, and said "she's not my type."
District Court Lewis Kaplan, who had denied the government's motion to substitute for Trump, said the president is not employed by the government, so he couldn't have acted within the scope of his employment when talking about Carroll.
Friday's decision means that the case will go back to the district court for further work, and follows an opinion last week from the D.C. Court of Appeals.
That court refused to shield Trump from accountability but didn't resolve the question about whether denying Carroll's allegations was part of the scope of his employment, as the alleged incident would have taken place well before his election.
If the district court determines Trump was acting as a government employee, the U.S. government would then substitute as the defendant and the case would be dismissed, as the government can't be sued for defamation.
However, Trump's trial is still on for next week in New York City in a second lawsuit filed by Carroll in connection with her rape allegations. In that lawsuit, filed in November, she claimed more instances of defamation and added a claim of battery.
The battery claim is allowed under a New York state law allowing adult victims to sue their alleged attackers, even in incidents that occurred years ago.
Carroll's attorneys have said they do not plan to call Trump to testify, but will play parts of a deposition he gave. His attorneys have said he hasn't decided whether to attend the trial.
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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