Writer E. Jean Carroll’s attorneys moved to block the Department of Justice (DOJ) from intervening in her defamation lawsuit against President TrumpDonald John TrumpState Department revokes visa of Giuliani-linked Ukrainian ally: report White House Gift Shop selling ‘Trump Defeats COVID’ commemorative coin Biden says he should not have called Trump a clown in first debate MORE through a Monday motion. 

Carroll’s lawyers Roberta Kaplan and Joshua Matz countered the DOJ’s request from last month to defend the president through a motion to the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. 

Carroll has accused the president of raping her in the 1990s and sued Trump for defamation in November after he responded to the allegations by denying knowing her. 

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In Monday’s filing, the attorneys rejected the DOJ’s assertion that the president was “acting within the scope of his office” when he said he didn’t know her and denied her rape allegations. 

“There is not a single person in the United States — not the President and not anyone else —  whose job description includes slandering women they sexually assaulted,” the lawyers wrote.

They labeled the DOJ’s move as “another stratagem” for Trump to “avoid accountability,” noting the president has claimed parts of his actions while in office, such as his tweets and business deals, were private, while other actions like comments on Carroll are considered part of his public role.     

“The Justice Department intervened to shield Trump from legal accountability only after his state court stall tactics, procedural gambits, and assertions of immunity were all rejected,” the lawyers wrote. 

“Only in a world gone mad,” they added, “could it somehow be presidential, not personal, for Trump to slander a woman who he sexually assaulted.”

The White House deferred comment to the DOJ, which did not immediately return a request for comment. 

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Last month, the Justice Department made the unusual move of requesting to replace Trump’s private lawyers and move Carroll’s defamation case to federal court, saying Trump was acting in his official presidential capacity when commenting on the writer.

The action came after a New York judge ruled that Carroll’s defamation case could continue in the court after the president’s legal team repeatedly tried to delay the suit. 

Attorney General William BarrBill BarrMan who conspired with 9/11 hijackers sues Trump and US officials alleging ‘cover up’ Barr reverses, will quarantine for several days after potential coronavirus exposure Doctors, White House staff offer conflicting messages on president’s health MORE defended the department’s actions during a press conference last month, calling the case law “crystal clear.” He later said the White House directed the DOJ’s action.

“The little tempest that’s going on is largely because of the bizarre political environment in which we live,” he said.

If the court accepts the DOJ’s request, “Carroll’s complaint would be effectively dismissed,” The New York Times reported. 

Carroll, a columnist for Elle magazine, wrote in her 2019 memoir that Trump raped her almost 30 years ago in a dressing room at the Bergdorf Goodman department store. The president has denied the allegations. 

She has requested a DNA sample from Trump to see if it is linked to material on a dress she said she wore during the alleged assault. 

More than a dozen women have accused the president of sexual misconduct before he was elected, which Trump has denied.

Texas Democrats are making health care the heart of their final pitch as they look to flip the state House, which Republicans have held since 2002.

In a “contract with Texas” that Democrats are rolling out Thursday and which was shared first with The Hill, the party is touting policies it would try to enact should it flip the net nine seats it needs to gain control of the chamber. The central pillar of the plan is expanding Medicaid in Texas, which has the highest number and rate of uninsured people in the nation, as well as boosting coverage for children and making care for women more equal. 

The party is betting that voters in the state who normally rank health care as a top issue will be even more receptive to messages around expanding coverage in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic, which has hit the Lone Star State particularly hard. And after Democrats across the country won in a “blue wave” in 2018 fueled by promises to improve coverage, Texas Democrats are confident their strategy will work. 

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“I think we have seen for a while now, before the pandemic, before any of us heard of coronavirus, that health care was a top-ranked issue, really across the country. Certainly in the 2018 elections, health care was a key issue that year,” said state Rep. Chris Turner, chair of the Texas House Democratic caucus. “But this year, with this pandemic, with the health care crisis that is affecting everyone, it’s just through the roof right now. People expect policymakers to address health care access.” 

The heart of the Democrats’ “Affordable Health Care for Every Texan” plan is providing coverage for 2.2 million more residents by expanding Medicaid, which the party says would also lower premiums and prescription drug prices for all Texans. Estimates from the party gauge that Texas would receive $110 billion in federal money over a decade if Medicaid is expanded. 

The plan also calls for expanding coverage for children by extending children’s Medicaid “through 12 months of continuous eligibility to align with [the Children’s Health Insurance Program].”

Lastly, Democrats look to bolster women’s health care by ensuring access to abortion — including by ensuring clinics that offer the procedure receive proper funding — and reducing maternal mortality rates, including bringing down the disproportionate rate at which Black mothers die during childbirth.

The party is also eyeing other health care-related legislation, including bills to strengthen protections for people with preexisting conditions if ObamaCare is repealed and ending surprise medical billing.

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Texas Democrats have long lamented Republicans’ policies on health care in the state, including their refusal to expand Medicaid and work to curb abortion access, but indicate those efforts would face reenergized resistance if they win back the state House.

“Without the gavel, we haven’t been able to dictate the tone and tenor of what happens on the floor, so this time around we will be able to keep divisive and hurtful legislation off the floor and we’ll be able to prioritize things like Medicaid expansion which have overwhelming support from the electorate,” said state Rep. Celia Israel.

But Democrats’ ability to enact any of the reforms they want is contingent on actually winning control of the state House and earning a seat at the legislative table. 

Republicans are expected to fiercely defend their slim majority in a state that has historically been home turf and note that Democrats still face headwinds in a state they have been boasting about for several cycles.

Texas GOP strategist Corbin Casteel said he “won’t be surprised either way with the results” but told The Hill Democrats must run historic races in a presidential year in order to make significant gains.

“This is a turnout election. Very few undecideds. When that is the case, the best-run campaign typically wins. And that affects state and local races greatly,” he said. “The margin of victory at the top of the ticket is vital for both parties in Texas. [Former Vice President Joe] Biden doesn’t have to carry Texas to flip the majority in the Texas House. But he does have to have a turnout that makes recent history for a Democratic presidential candidate in Texas.”

Democrats are currently targeting 25 GOP-held districts across urban, suburban and rural areas, but its top nine targets are ones currently represented by Republicans at the legislative level that were won by former Rep. Beto O’RourkeBeto O’RourkeUnion leader vows ‘infrequent’ minority voters will help deliver Biden victory Jimmy Carter says his son smoked pot with Willie Nelson on White House roof O’Rourke endorses Kennedy for Senate: ‘A champion for the values we’re most proud of’ MORE (D) in his 2018 Senate bid.

Democrats have been hopeful they can make further headway this cycle after flipping 12 state House seats on the backs of swiftly changing demographics, including a growing Hispanic population and an influx of new residents from liberal states. 

“It’s looking very good,” Ed Espinoza, who runs the advocacy group Progress Texas, told The Hill. “The districts look different than they did previously. They’re the same lines, but Texas has just grown so much that you have a whole new set of voters who live in many of these places, and that has changed the makeup of these districts dramatically.”

And the party is confident voters will be fired up heading into the general election given the historic circumstances surrounding the election and virulent anti-Trump sentiment among its base.

“The common phrase I’ve been using is crushed glass, because people have been telling me they’d crawl over crushed glass in order to vote. So we’re excited for the election, it’s going to be a historic election,” Israel said. “We’re going to flip the House and recalibrate the issues that we’ve been working on and pass legislation.”

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ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia — The EU’s top diplomat arrived in the Ethiopian capital on Thursday hoping to inject fresh momentum into Europe’s plan for a new era of cooperation on digital, the environment and economic policy.

He might have to wait a while longer.

Josep Borrell’s trip to the headquarters of the African Union is the first by a high-ranking EU official since the pandemic took hold in March, soaking up diplomatic bandwidth. It is an attempt to push forward the European Commission’s Africa pivot which was set in train in December by Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, who made Ethiopia the venue for her first foreign visit in post.

In meetings with African Union Chairperson Moussa Faki, his deputy Thomas Kwesi Quartey and Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, Borrell extended an invitation to African leaders to hold an informal in-person meeting with national EU leaders before the end of the year on debt relief. He also brought with him nearly a million COVID-19 test kits for distribution by the AU.

Abiy is among a growing chorus of African leaders calling on the G20 to go beyond placing a moratorium on debt payments and provide a full haircut on the overall burden, a request which has won a sympathetic hearing from France and Spain.

Three officials briefed on the plans said a high-level meeting is tentatively scheduled for December and would include all 27 heads of state and government from Europe and dozens more from Africa as well as representatives from Africa’s regional economic communities.

How to help Africa recover from a deep economic crisis caused by the pandemic and regional integration through the Africa Continental Free Trade Area — which is set to be launched on January 1 — will also be on the agenda, the officials said.

The EU-AU Summit originally scheduled for this month has now been pushed back until the first half of next year, the officials said.

Not all of Borrell’s charm offensive was welcome though. Part of the EU’s Africa strategy is to ensure its so-called Green Deal — a strategy aimed at transitioning toward more environmentally friendly economies — becomes part of alliances forged with partners abroad. African countries, however, view the deal with skepticism because of fears it will impose costs on achieving the economic growth needed to pull citizens out of poverty.

“In the end, the actual interests are not necessarily fully aligned,” said Alfonso Medinilla, a policy officer specializing on Africa at the European Centre for Development Policy Management, speaking about Europe’s environmental ambitions abroad. “I would expect him [Borrell] to be exploring and testing the waters a bit to see where there’s a real common ground to be found.”

Borrell on Thursday sought to convince Faki that joining Europe on its green revolution was also in Africa’s interests, two officials briefed on the talks said.

“I know that many Africans, like a significant number of Europeans, fear that going down this road will hamper their economic development. For my part, I am convinced of the exact opposite,” Borrell wrote in an essay this week.

“It is only if Africa manages to avoid the mistakes that we Europeans have made for two centuries in terms of damage to the environment that it will be able to offer a future for its inhabitants with a sufficient number of jobs,” he added.

One EU official said it was understandable that Africa is “not going to embrace it [the Green Deal] wholeheartedly straight away,” while an AU official said the deal “is all EU — a continent of emitters.”

The Republican National Committee (RNC) is committing almost $250,000 to a series of digital ads meant to pressure vulnerable Democratic senators into agreeing to an “up-or-down vote” on President Trump’s Supreme Court nominee and to gin up support for the GOP healthcare plan working its way through Congress.

The ad buy, provided exclusively to The Hill, is made up of three separate ads — two on healthcare and one on Judge Neil Gorsuch’s confirmation — that will run on social media. The buy shows a coordinated effort by the party to support two of the key priorities shared by the White House.

“Americans across the country are excited about the bold Republican agenda President Trump and Congressional Republicans have put forward to address some of our nation’s most pressing issues,” RNC Chairwoman Ronna Romney McDaniel told The Hill in a statement.

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“The RNC is committed to using all our resources to promote these policies and reforms which will benefit all Americans. As we continue to work hand-in-hand with a unified Republican government, I look forward to more opportunities to reach out directly to voters to communicate President Trump’s message,” she added.

The Gorsuch ads come after the appellate judge faced two days of hearings in the Senate this week and threats by Democratic leaders that they may try to delay his confirmation, citing concerns stemming from FBI Director James Comey’s revelation Monday of an investigation into potential ties between the Trump campaign and Russia.

“Our president has done his job to appoint a justice to the Supreme Court,” the RNC’s Gorsuch ad states. “The voters have demanded an up-or-down vote in the full Senate on Judge Gorsuch.”

Ten versions of the ad are aimed at 10 Democratic senators – all but one who are up in a tight reelection race in 2018 – and include telephone numbers for each of their offices in Washington, D.C.

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The personalized ads will target voters in the states of Democratic Sens. Tim KaineTimothy (Tim) Michael KaineWarren, Democrats urge Trump to back down from veto threat over changing Confederate-named bases Senate panel passes amendment to bar using troops against protesters Defense bill turns into proxy battle over Floyd protests MORE (Va.), Michael BennetMichael Farrand BennetSome realistic solutions for income inequality Democratic senators kneel during moment of silence for George Floyd 21 senators urge Pentagon against military use to curb nationwide protests MORE (Colo.), Bill NelsonClarence (Bill) William NelsonNASA, SpaceX and the private-public partnership that caused the flight of the Crew Dragon Lobbying world The most expensive congressional races of the last decade MORE (Fla.), Sherrod BrownSherrod Campbell BrownHillicon Valley: Senators raise concerns over government surveillance of protests | Amazon pauses police use of its facial recognition tech | FBI warns hackers are targeting mobile banking apps Democratic senators raise concerns over government surveillance of protests Some realistic solutions for income inequality MORE (Ohio), Bob CaseyRobert (Bob) Patrick Casey21 senators urge Pentagon against military use to curb nationwide protests Overnight Health Care: Trump says US ‘terminating’ relationship with WHO | Cuomo: NYC on track to start reopening week of June 8 | COVID-19 workplace complaints surge 10 things to know today about coronavirus MORE (Penn.), Tammy BaldwinTammy Suzanne BaldwinBiden launches program to turn out LGBTQ vote We need a ‘9-1-1’ for mental health — we need ‘9-8-8’ Democrats introduce bill to rein in Trump’s power under Insurrection Act MORE (Wis.), Joe DonnellyJoseph (Joe) Simon DonnellyEx-Sen. Joe Donnelly endorses Biden Lobbying world 70 former senators propose bipartisan caucus for incumbents MORE (Ind.), Claire McCaskillClaire Conner McCaskillMissouri county issues travel advisory for Lake of the Ozarks after Memorial Day parties Senate faces protracted floor fight over judges amid pandemic safety concerns Amash on eyeing presidential bid: ‘Millions of Americans’ want someone other than Trump, Biden MORE (Mo.), Jon TesterJonathan (Jon) TesterSenate confirms Trump’s watchdog for coronavirus funds Montana barrels toward blockbuster Senate fight The 10 Senate seats most likely to flip MORE (Mont.), Heidi HeitkampMary (Heidi) Kathryn Heitkamp70 former senators propose bipartisan caucus for incumbents Susan Collins set to play pivotal role in impeachment drama Pro-trade group launches media buy as Trump and Democrats near deal on new NAFTA MORE (N.D.), Joe ManchinJoseph (Joe) ManchinTrump administration seeks to use global aid for nuclear projects Shelley Moore Capito wins Senate primary West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice wins GOP gubernatorial primary MORE (W.Va.) and Debbie StabenowDeborah (Debbie) Ann StabenowSheldon Whitehouse leads Democrats into battle against Trump judiciary Bill aims to help farmers sell carbon credits Senate Democrats pump brakes on new stimulus checks MORE (Mich.).

The other two ads target voters in states with tight 2018 elections and seek to shed a positive light on the GOP’s healthcare plan.

Trump and GOP leadership have been whipping support for the bill ahead of a Thursday vote, but it appears there could be enough conservative dissent to block the bill, according to The Hill’s Whip List.

One ad blasts the Affordable Care Act as a “false promise” by Democrats, while the other – slated for release on the Thursday anniversary of ObamaCare being signed into law – lays out the GOP’s multi-pronged plan for a healthcare replacement, using the current bill making its way through Congress, administrative actions and additional legislation.