Zoe Tillman at Bloomberg:

The US Justice Department is seeking to intervene on behalf of President Donald Trump in the long-running civil lawsuits accusing him of being personally liable for the violence and disruption at the US Capitol during the Jan. 6, 2021, attack.

The cases have been held up for years amid a fight over whether Trump is entitled to immunity. In a notice filed Thursday night, a Justice Department official told a judge Trump was acting “within the scope of his office” during the events in question, meaning the US government, and not Trump, should be the defendant in the cases.

If government lawyers succeed in swapping Trump out of the litigation, it would rid him of one of the last remaining personal legal threats he faces. But a judge will first have to approve the move, and the plaintiffs are expected to oppose it.