DOJ seeks to substitute U.S. for Trump in Carroll defamation case

The Justice Department plans to ask the Supreme Court to allow it to swap the United States in as the defendant under the Westfall Act in E. Jean Carroll’s defamation suit against Donald Trump, which would terminate the case since the federal government cannot be sued for defamation. A lower court had rejected the government’s bid to substitute, and Trump is seeking to pause payment of the $83.3 million verdict while the Supreme Court weighs review, making this post-trial intervention highly unusual.