Amid Trump’s barrage of lies, he has also found moments to gloat as his nominee Amy Coney Barrett has been confirmed to the Court, by a 52-48 partisan vote, and hearing his other Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh charge that state courts “do not have a blank check to rewrite election laws for federal elections.”
But all the courts are not as eager to kowtow to his caprice. On Tuesday, Judge Lewis A. Kaplan of Federal District Court in Manhattan, rejected the Justice Department’s attempt to intrude into a case where Trump is being sued for defamation in connection with his denial in office of a long ago rape allegation.
The lawsuit filed by E. Jean Carroll, a writer, accuses Trump of raping her in a department store dressing room in the 1990s. She charges that his denial and calling her a liar impugned her reputation.
With the ruling from Judge Kaplan, Carroll can continue her lawsuit against Trump since he cannot move her lawsuit to federal court to substitute the U.S. for him as the defendant. Such a move by the Justice Department would have allowed him protection as a federal employee against litigation stemming from the performance of their duties. And that action, had it been approved, would have possibly led to the charges being dismissed.
According to Judge Kaplan, who was appointed by President Clinton, Trump was not acting in an official capacity when he denied the accusation. “His comments concerned an alleged sexual assault that took place several decades before he took office, and the allegations have no relationship to the official business of the United States.”
Meanwhile, Trump was back on the campaign trail in Lansing, Michigan where many in attendance wore masks with “MAGA” on them. Toward the middle of his speech he assailed Obama, remarking on the small crowd at his event, and taunted Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, calling Biden “Sleepy Joe” and saying that Harris was more to the left than Bernie Sanders. “She makes him look like a conservative,” he said.