Justice Dept blocked in bid to shield Trump from rape defamation suit

A federal judge ruled on Tuesday that US President Donald Trump can be personally sued for defamation in connection with his denial while in office of a decades-old rape allegation.
 

The judge, Lewis A Kaplan of Federal District Court in Manhattan, rejected the Justice Department’s attempt to step into the case and defend the president, and his ruling means that, for the moment, a lawsuit by the writer E Jean Carroll can move forward against Trump, in his capacity as a private citizen.
 

Carroll has accused Trump of raping her in a department store dressing room in the 1990s. Her lawsuit claims he harmed her reputation when he denied the attack last year and branded her a liar.
 

Last month, the Justice Department abruptly intervened on Trump’s behalf in the suit, which had been filed in state court in New York, citing a law designed to protect federal employees against litigation stemming from the performance of their duties.
 

Under that law, the Federal Tort Claims Act, the department sought to move Carroll’s suit to federal court and to substitute the US for Trump as the defendant.   
 

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