from the the-crazy-never-ends dept Not this again. For many years now there have been a series of ongoing lawsuits between E. Jean Carroll and Donald Trump, involving a variety of issues, but mainly whether or not he sexually assaulted her back in the 1990s and, separately, whether he defamed her in claiming he’d never met her after she accused him of sexual assault. As I’ve explained previously, I think the defamation claim part of it is pretty weak, but back during the first Trump administration, he had sought to have the DOJ substitute in and take over for him in the defamation case, which would have immediately ended the case, as you can’t sue the government for defamation. Having the DOJ substitute in for a government employee is allowed under the Westfall Act , and is designed to allow the US government to become the party when a government employee is sued for doing something in the course of their job (the normal example is if a government driver hits someone with a vehicle).…