U.S. President Joe Biden¡¯s Justice Department aimed to shield the presidency, not Donald Trump, with its latest action in a defamation case brought by a woman who accuses the former president of raping her, legal experts have said.

The case is one of two in recent weeks in which the administration has taken a position that shields the Republican Trump or those who served in his administration, angering liberals in Biden¡¯s own Democratic Party.

On Monday the Justice Department, under Attorney General Merrick Garland, urged a court to substitute the U.S. government as the defendant in the lawsuit brought by E. Jean Carroll, a writer who accuses Trump of raping her a quarter century ago and defaming her by denying it while he was president.