WASHINGTON — An appellate court set an expedited schedule to consider whether Donald Trump was acting in his official duties as president in 2019 when he denied a claim by a woman that he sexually assaulted her in a department store dressing room decades ago.
The District of Columbia Court of Appeals’ answer to that question is a critical next step in writer E. Jean Carroll’s defamation lawsuit against Trump. In an order Tuesday, the court set arguments for Jan. 10 as a full court, instead of the typical three-judge panel, meaning any decision would be final, appealable only to the U.S. Supreme Court.
Last month, a different appellate court revived Trump’s argument that he could be eligible for federal legal protection against Carroll’s civil suit in New York because he was a government employee when he made the comments at issue. But that court kicked over the question of whether he was, in fact, acting within his official duties to the District of Columbia’s highest local court.
