June 19 (UPI) -- An appeals court on Wednesday ruled against the Justice Department's attempt to replace President Donald Trump as the defendant in a multimillion-dollar defamation case.
Trump is fighting a 2023 defamation judgment ordering him to pay $83.3 million to writer E. Jean Carroll for denying that he sexually assaulted her at a New York City department store in the mid-1990s.
Though the president denies the assault, he was found liable for sexual abuse and then for defaming her by denying the assault after she made it public.
The Department of Justice had asked the court for permission to substitute itself as the defendant in the appeal under the Westfall Act, a mechanism that allows the United States to defend claims against federal officers and employees when the alleged offense occurred within the scope of their duties.
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