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(CNN)Attorney General William Barr on Wednesday defended the Justice Department's decision to represent President Donald Trump in a defamation lawsuit filed by a woman who has accused Trump of sexual assault in the 1990s.
Because Trump addressed and denied the accusations by E. Jean Carroll while serving as president, Barr said, the federal government is allowed to step in.
The attorney general also said politics is to blame for the reaction to the Justice Department paying for Trump's defense and possibly killing the lawsuit.
"This was a normal application of the law. The law is clear. It is done frequently. And the little tempest that's going on is largely because of the bizarre political environment in which we live," Barr said in a news conference in Chicago.
"Officials who are elected and answer press questions while they're in office, even if those questions relate to their personal activity, and could bear upon their personal fitness, is in fact in the course of federal employment, and can be therefore certified under the Westfall Act," Barr said.
Carroll, a veteran columnist for Elle Magazine, said Trump falsely called her a liar after she accused him of sexual assault.
"President Trump knows that I told the truth when I said that he had sexually assaulted me in a dressing room at Bergdorf Goodman. He also knows that he was lying when he said that he had never met me before and that I 'wasn't his type,'" Carroll said in a statement Tuesday.
CNN legal analyst and University of Texas law professor Steve Vladeck said Barr's comments are misleading when it comes to the President.
"Yes, DOJ 'frequently' seeks to take over tort claims against federal employees," Vladeck said. "But there's no 'frequent' history of doing so when the defendant is the President -- or of waiting as long as DOJ did here to invoke the statute."
The lawsuit was filed in November, and a New York judge last month ruled that the lawsuit could proceed against Trump. Carroll is also seeking to require Trump provide a DNA sample to compare with male genetic material found on the black Donna Karan dress Carroll says she wore during the alleged encounter at Bergdorf's.
A person familiar with Trump's legal team said having the Justice Department step in into the case opens the door for additional legal defenses to the claims against Trump, including arguing that the federal government cannot be sued for defamation.
CNN's Kara Scannell contributed to this report.
