Does Merrick Garland

[StarfishSaver]

42. They're not acting as his private attorney

Something different.

Under the Westfall Act, when a government official is sued Ilin their private capacity for acts they committed when in office as part of their job, the federal government steps in and becomes the defendant in their place.

The rub is that while in some cases, it is very easy to determine whether someone was acting in there official or personal capacity almost immediately, in others, it can't be determined until the case proceeds to discovery and more evidence goes in the record for a judge to use to decide that issue.

The case of a president is one of the more difficult ones because their jobs are not as easily delineated between personal and official. Almost everything they do can have official implications. In this case presidents make statements all the time about a wide variety of things and the line between personal and official is very blurred. A court will probably have to decide whether Trump's statements about Carroll were purely personal or if they arose out of any official interest or duty. Of course most of us are sure they didn't, but our opinions is not a legal determination - that still has to be ruled on by a judge. In the meantime the Justice Department is seeking to step in to protect the government's interest in case the judge rules that this was official activity.

It's pretty complicated and confusing and even lawyers aren't agreeing on how DOJ should handle it. But that doesn't mean that Merrick Garland or DOJ are doing the wrong thing or should be attacked for choosing the option that they did. It's a perfectly reasonable and justifiable one.