Why the Hell Is Bidens Justice Department Defending Donald Trump?
In the age of the 24-hour news cycle, it can be difficult to remember things that happened last week, let alone several months ago. So just as a reminder, in November 2020, there was a presidential election between Donald Trump and Joe Biden, and the guy from Scranton won. A couple months later, in January, Trump left the White House and Biden took office, and then after that, Biden hired a bunch of people to run various federal agencies on his behalf. Who needs to be reminded of these events, you might be asking yourself. And the answer is, apparently not. And its not just the last guy in office whos having trouble accepting that fact; its some of the people working for Bidens administration too, if the manner in which the Justice Department is being run is any indication. Per The Washington Post:  The Justice Departments Civil Division under President Biden is continuing the Trump-era push to represent the former president in a defamation lawsuit brought by author E. Jean Carroll, according to a Monday night appellate court filing. The lawsuit brought by Carrollwho accused Donald Trump two years ago of sexually assaulting her in the 1990shas been stalled in litigation over whether the Justice Department had standing to represent him on the grounds that his denials in response to her claim were made while performing his presidential duties. The legal maneuver would have required a judge to find that a federal tort law that protects government employees from civil liability applies to a sitting president. Last year a federal judge in Manhattan rejected the Justice Departments effort to enter the case on the grounds that both elements were missing from the equation. In September, when then attorney general Bill Barr first tried to use the DOJ to kill Carrolls suit against Trump, it was seen as yet another instance of Barr viewing himself as Trumps personal attorney, and a sleazy one at that. As University of Texas law professor Steve Vladeck noted at the time, it was not at all standard procedure for the DOJ to defend a government official in a private matter, and it was especially unusual for Justice Department lawyers to attempt to defend Trumps personal behaviorfrom before he was president!behind a shield of sovereign immunity. Which is why Barrs involvement was seen as outrageous by both the public and federal judges, and no one actually believed the DOJ under Merrick Garland would continue to fight on Trumps behalf. The Justice Departments attempted intervention on Trumps behalf was controversial and seen by critics as an inappropriate bid by Barr to insulate the president from personal liability in what Carrolls lawyers said was a purely personal matter  the alleged conduct having occurred decades before Trump took office. In October, U.S. District Court Judge Lewis A. Kaplan ruled that Trump did not qualify as an employee of the government as defined by federal law and that he was not acting within the scope of his employment when he publicly responded to Carrolls allegations. Kaplan ruled that Trumps personal lawyers would have to resume their defense of him in the ongoing lawsuit. According to the Post, attorneys in the DOJs Civil Division began the appeals process before Trump left office, when the question lingered as to whether the Biden administration would continue to advance the legal cause. Obviously few, if anyone, thought it actually would for a variety of reasons, not the least of which being that the Justice Department presumably has better things to do than defend a man-pigwho claims to be very rich and can afford his own lawyersfor responding to Carrolls rape accusation by saying, Number one, shes not my type. Number two, it never happened, and then also: [Shes] totally lying. I dont know anything about her. I know nothing about this woman. I know nothing about her. She isits just a terrible thing that people can make statements like that. (Carroll sued Trump in 2019, months after New York magazine published her claim that he raped her in a Bergdorf Goodman dressing room in the 1990s. The suit was filed in response to Trumps public insistence that he and the veteran journalist had never met. (Separately, Carroll has exposed Trumps alleged attacks on at least one other woman.) While basically acknowledging that Trump is an assholein its brief, the DOJ says his comments about Carroll were without question unnecessary and inappropriatethe department nevertheless insists it must keep defending the guy as a matter of precedent. Speaking to the public and the press on matters of public concern is undoubtedly part of an elected officials job, the reply filed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit reads. Courts have thus consistently and repeatedly held that allegedly defamatory statements made in that context are within the scope of elected officials employmentincluding when the statements were prompted by press inquiries about the officials private life.