CNN Legal Analyst Slams Biden DOJ for Defending Trump in Case Over Rape Denial: Merrick Garland ‘Failing to Rise to the Challenge’

The Justice Department under Donald Trump sought to defend the then-president against a defamation suit from E. Jean Carroll, who accused Trump of rape.

The DOJ under Joe Biden is continuing that effort, a move that has received a great deal of criticism. Per Politico:

In the filing with the New York-based 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, the Justice Department insisted that it was not endorsing Trump’s conduct toward the writer, E. Jean Carroll, even as it argued that a law governing suits against federal officials justified the government’s move to take over the former president’s defense in the case…

[DOJ official Brian] Boynton also adhered to the stance the Justice Department adopted in the case last September: that Trump was acting in the course of his official duties as president when he denied Carroll’s rape allegations from more than two decades ago.

CNN legal analyst Elie Honig criticized the DOJ and said both Bill Barr and Merrick Garland are wrong here.

“Here I disagree and Judge Kaplan disagreed that defaming somebody, calling somebody a liar who accused the president of sexual assault, I disagree that that falls within a president’s official duties,” he said.

Jim Sciutto brought up the criticism Trump and Barr received at the time, that the former president was using the DOJ “as his own personal lawyer,” before noting the “odd circumstances” at play right now.

“I think Merrick Garland is making a mistake here,” Honig responded. “I think it’s good that Merrick Garland is making this decision without consulting with President Biden. That’s as it should be… but I think he’s missed an opportunity here to draw a line between the new DOJ and the Bill Barr DOJ.”

He even accused Garland of being “timid in his approach to this issue and others,” bringing up the DOJ moving to block the full release of a memo on the decision not to charge Trump with obstruction of justice.

“Garland really — the polite way to put it is he’s being an institutionalist,” Honig said. “I don’t subscribe to that, I think he’s failing to rise to the challenge that meets him as a result of taking over from Bill Barr and the corruption that Barr put on the Justice Department.”

You can watch above, via CNN.