A federal judge rejected an effort by the Department of Justice to have the U.S. government replace President Donald Trump in a lawsuit in which he’s accused of defaming writer E. Jean Carroll after she alleged that he sexually assaulted her in the 1990s.
Judge Lewis Kaplan, an appointee of former President Bill Clinton, said Trump has to remain a defendant in the suit. The Justice Department asserted that the president was acting as a government official when he said Carroll was lying and was motivated by money.