Federal appeals court punts on writer's suit against Trump over rape denial - POLITICO

A divided panel of the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that a lower court judge erred when he concluded that Trump, as president, was not covered by a federal law that can be used to shield federal employees from liability over incidents related to their work.

A federal appeals court handed Donald Trump an incremental win Tuesday in a libel suit brought by writer E.

A divided panel of the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that a lower court judge erred when he concluded that Trump, as president, was not covered by a federal law that can be used to shield federal employees from liability over incidents related to their work.

Under Trump, the Justice Department belatedly invoked that law — known as the Westfall Act — in a bid to shut down the defamation case Carroll filed in 2019 stemming from statements Trump issued denying that he raped Carroll, including a declaration that “She’s not my type.” Last year, under President Joe Biden, the Justice Department stirred controversy by reaffirming the department’s earlier stance that Trump was essentially immune from suit because he was acting within the scope of his duties when fielding media questions about the alleged rape at the Bergdorf Goodman in 1995 or 1996.

In Tuesday’s ruling, the majority on the three-judge federal appeals court panel asked a local court in Washington, the District of Columbia Court of Appeals, to weigh in on whether Trump’s statements are the sort of actions that employers can be held liable for under D.C.

“The District’s case law has, thus, seemed to vacillate between a narrow view of scope of employment that requires evidence that an intentional tort benefit—or be for the purpose of benefiting—the employer, and a more modern, broader view of scope of employment that would hold that any intentional tort that is a part of the risks of an employer’s activity falls within the scope of employment,” Judge Guido Calabresi, an appointee of President Bill Clinton, wrote in an opinion joined by Judge William Nardini, a Trump appointee.

He agreed with Carroll’s lawyers that the law protecting federal employees from liability simply does not apply to the president.

Chin, an appointee of President Barack Obama, said the Justice Department’s arguments that a president could claim immunity for virtually any statement made to the press were too broad.

Court of Appeals will find that our client was acting within the scope of his employment when properly repudiating Ms