Biden’s Justice Department backs Donald Trump in DC protest suit

The Justice Department has agreed that the federal government will foot the bill if former President Donald Trump is found liable for violating the rights of protesters when National Guard troops and police forcibly drove racial justice demonstrators from a park near the White House in June 2020.

Justice Department attorneys said in a notice filed in federal court in Washington late Monday that Trump is entitled to U.S. government support in the civil case because the suit’s allegations stem from his work as president.

“On the basis of the information now available … I find that Donald J. Trump was acting within the scope of federal office or employment at the time of the incident out of which the plaintiffs’ claims arise,” wrote James Touhey Jr., the head of the Torts Branch in DOJ’s Civil Division.

Justice Department attorneys also filed a motion to dismiss the claims against Trump.

A Justice Department spokesperson declined comment on the developments.

An attorney for the plaintiffs in the suit — one of several stemming from the clearing of demonstrators from Lafayette Park amid nationwide civil justice protests over the murder of George Floyd by Minneapolis police — did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

It’s the latest opportunity for the courts to weigh Trump’s conduct in office and whether he can be held legally liable for his actions while president. The Supreme Court’s landmark July ruling concluded that presidents enjoy broad criminal immunity for acts deemed part of their official duties.

DOJ's decisions to step in on Trump’s behalf in civil cases have been controversial in the past.

In September 2020, then-Attorney General Bill Barr drew criticism for a decision to take over Trump’s defense in a civil defamation suit that writer E. Jean Carroll brought against Trump for his statements denying her claim that he raped her in a department store dressing room in the 1990s.

After President Joe Biden was sworn in in 2021, Attorney General Merrick Garland initially stood by that position , prompting complaints from Democrats about the Justice Department fighting for Trump in a case that involved highly personal allegations.

Last year, citing new factual developments, the Justice Department reversed course and abandoned its support for Trump in that case. Carroll ultimately won verdicts against Trump for $83.3 million in a separate suit directly involving her sexual assault claims and $5 million in the original defamation case.

The Justice Department’s move to assume liability for Trump in the suit stemming from the dispersal of the Lafayette Square protest came more than four years after the incident because litigation in the case and related suits has been slow-moving. The former president was initially named as a defendant in the case solely in his official capacity, which would not allow for a financial award.

However, in March, U.S. District Court Judge Dabney Friedrich gave the plaintiffs permission to amend their suit to seek damages from Trump. The suit was amended to name him personally liable the following month.

The Justice Department settled portions of the Lafayette Square suits in 2022, agreeing to change Park Police and Secret Service policies to better safeguard protesters.