The Justice Department said President Trump had acted in his official capacity when denying a rape claim made by a longtime magazine columnist, and therefore shouldn't be sued personally for defamation
In a court filing, lawyers for the department told the court that"the President addressed matters relating to his fitness for office as part of an official White House response to press inquiries.""As stated in the complaint," they wrote,"'he rape of a woman is a violent crime,' ... and, if believed, even false allegations that the President committed such a crime could obviously impact the President's ability to effectively govern.
In their filing Monday, they asserted that the standard for determining whether the department should be allowed to intervene isn't whether"as plaintiff argues, 'slander' or 'defamation' is part of a Federal elected official's 'job description.' It is whether the official was acting within the scope of employment—e.g., making statements to the press while on duty responding to allegations of impropriety—when the alleged defamatory statement was made.
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