Trump’s Immunity Defense Narrowed by DC Appeals Court

(Bloomberg) -- Donald Trump will get another chance to fend off a defamation lawsuit by writer E. Jean Carroll, but it will be harder for him to argue that because he was president at the time, he is immune from being sued.

Most Read from Bloomberg

• Trump Answered All Questions at Second Deposition, Opting Not to Plead the Fifth

• Apple Makes Headway on New Mac Laptops as It Grapples With Slump

• Arnault's Wealth Soars to $210 Billion, Leaving Musk in the Dust

• Tesla Goes After America’s Top-Selling SUVs

• Schwab Faces Fresh Risks in the Zero-Fee Landscape It Shaped

In an opinion issued on Thursday, the District of Columbia’s highest court declined to answer the core question of whether Trump was acting within the scope of his official duties when he made the allegedly defamatory remarks about Carroll. Chief Judge Anna Blackburne-Rigsby wrote that the issue was too “fact-intensive” for the judges to decide at this stage.

But the court did make clear that for a government employee to claim legal protection against litigation, their conduct had to be motivated at least in part by serving their employer — in Trump’s case, the US government and the American people — and that purpose had to be more than an “insignificant interest.”

Read the court’s opinion here

That interpretation of how DC law applies to the case has been embraced by Carroll’s attorneys, who argue that Trump’s comments about their client had nothing to do with his presidential duties. The fight stems from public comments Trump made about Carroll after she went public in 2019 with a claim that he raped her decades ago.

The DC judges also declined to adopt a sweeping rule that elected officials always act within the scope of their employment when they talk to the press — another finding expected to work against Trump as the case heads back to New York’s federal courts.

Read More: Trump Lawyer Protests Democrat Donor Backing Rape-Accuser Suit

“Now that the DC Court of Appeals has clarified the certified question before it, we are confident that the Second Circuit will rule in President Trump’s favor and dismiss Ms. Carroll’s case in its entirety,” Trump’s lawyer Alina Habba said in a statement.

Carroll’s lawyer Roberta Kaplan didn’t respond to a request for comment on the opinion.

The opinion wasn’t a clear victory for either side. But it keeps the suit in play against the former president, with the narrowed immunity defense, among his other legal headaches as he runs for a second term.

It comes less than two weeks before Carroll and Trump go to trial on April 25 in a second case, which she filed against him last year, that doesn’t hinge on his protections as a government employee. In that suit, filed in November, Carroll accuses Trump of sexual battery under a new New York law that temporarily lifts the statute of limitations on abuse that allegedly took place decades ago.

Trump has denied wrongdoing in both Carroll suits and says the litigation, along with his indictment in New York state court, is part of a broader partisan effort to undermine him politically.

QuickTake: What Trump’s Many Legal Perils Mean for His 2024 Bid

The 2nd US Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan last year handed Trump a partial win in the defamation case, agreeing with him that he qualified as a government employee potentially entitled to protection against being sued. But because the case involved DC employment law, the 2nd Circuit judges asked Washington’s equivalent of a state supreme court to clarify the legal framework for deciding when a government official’s actions fell within the bounds of their employment. The case was put on hold while the DC court considered the immunity question.

The Justice Department joined Trump in arguing that the US government should be substituted as the defendant in the case — a move that would lead to its dismissal — while making clear it wasn’t endorsing the “crude and disrespectful” comments he made about her.

On Thursday, a spokesperson for the department declined to comment.

The case is Donald J. Trump v. E. Jean Carroll, District of Columbia Court of Appeals, 22-SP-745.

Read More

• Trump Wants Rape Trial Delayed Over Indictment News ‘Deluge’

• Trump’s Protest Calls Lead to Anonymous Jury in Rape Trial

• Trump Pleads Not Guilty in NY Case Tying Hush Money to Election

Most Read from Bloomberg Businessweek

• A Smart Gun Is Finally Here, But Does Anyone Want It?

• There Are No Fees at America’s Smallest Bank

• Death, Taxes and ‘Teflon Don’

• Inside the IRS’s Shrinking Band of Wealth Hunters

• Women Tackle Football With a Full-Contact League of Their Own

©2023 Bloomberg L.P.