Trump blasts DOJ over E. Jean Carroll lawsuit withdrawal

Donald Trump on Wednesday raged in regards to the defamation lawsuit he faces from the author E. Jean Carroll, a day after the Department of Justice dropped a three-year effort to immunize the previous president from Carroll’s claims.

“The DOJ won’t defend me within the E. Jean Carroll civil case, which is all a part of the political Witch Hunt, lawyered up by apolitical operative who I just beat in one other case, financed by a giant political funder, and ‘judged’ by a Clinton appointee who truly hates ‘TRUMP,'” he wrote on his social media site.

“The Carroll civil case against me is a Miscarriage of Justice and a complete Scam,” Trump added.

The DOJ’s move Tuesday was the newest in a series of bad news for Trump in reference to Carroll, who has two civil suits against him in U.S. District Court in Manhattan.

Each cases relate to alleged defamatory statements Trump made at different times about Carroll while denying her claim that he raped her within the mid-Nineteen Nineties within the dressing room of a Recent York department store.

The second of Carroll’s suits went to trial this spring. A jury in May awarded Carroll $5 million in damages from Trump after finding that he was responsible for sexually abusing her and defaming her in statements he made about her in late 2022, when he was a non-public citizen. The jury didn’t find Trump responsible for rape.

The primary suit, which pertains to statements Trump made about Carroll in 2019, when he was still president, is about to start trial in January.

Since 2020, the Justice Department had argued that Trump needs to be replaced as a defendant in that case by the U.S. government, as a result of the proven fact that he was president on the time he made the disputed comments.

That effort, which played out in federal district court and two federal appeals courts, had stalled the lawsuit for nearly three years.

If the DOJ’s effort had succeeded, it could have effectively killed Carroll’s first lawsuit, since the federal government can shield itself from civil claims under the doctrine of sovereign immunity.

But on Tuesday, the DOJ dropped its bid, clearing the way in which for Carroll’s case to proceed to trial. The department cited a recent appeals court decision and other aspects, saying there was “now not a sufficient basis to conclude that the previous President was motivated by ‘greater than an insignificant’ desire to serve america Government.”

The DOJ’s move leaves Trump facing the prospect that one other jury will determine he defamed Carroll and order him to pay her much more monetary damages, just because the 2024 Republican presidential primary season kicks into gear. Trump currently is the leading contender in that race.

“The statements that I made about Carroll are all true,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social site Wednesday.

“I didn’t Rape her (I won that at trial) and aside from for this case, I even have NO IDEA WHO SHE IS, WHAT SHE LOOKS LIKE, OR ANYTHING ABOUT HER….” he wrote.

Trump also wrote that the primary trial, which he lost, “was very unfair, with the opposite side with the ability to do and present virtually anything they wanted, and our side being largely and wrongfully shut down by a completely hostile, biased, and uncontrolled judge.”

Trump then noted that he’s appealing the jury verdict, which he called a “travesty of justice.”

CNBC has requested comment from Carroll’s legal team about Trump’s latest statements.