CV NEWS FEED // Former President Donald Trump filed a defamation suit Monday against ABC News and its employee George Stephanopoulos just over a week after the longtime host falsely said Trump was “found liable for rape.”
The lawsuit states that
on Sunday, March 10, 2024, Defendant George Stephanopoulos, during the airing of his weekly [ABC] television show, This Week With George Stephanopoulos, falsely stated on several occasions that [Trump] had been found liable by multiple juries for the rape of Ms. E. Jean Carroll.
“These statements were and remain false,” the complaint continues, “and were made by Defendant Stephanopoulos with actual malice or with a reckless disregard for the truth given that Defendant Stephanopoulos knows that these statements are patently and demonstrably false.”
“Indeed, the jury expressly found that [Trump] did not commit rape and … Defendant Goerge Stephanopoulos was aware of the jury’s finding in this regard yet still falsely stated otherwise,” the lawsuit adds.
Stephanopoulos made the remarks in question during an interview with Rep. Nancy Mace, R-SC. Mace is a socially moderate Republican who endorsed Trump weeks before he became the party’s presumptive presidential nominee. She had previously criticized Trump.
FOX News reported that “Mace, a rape survivor, says she felt personally attacked when Stephanopoulos, a former top aide to President Bill Clinton, asked how she could support Trump’s White House bid.”
FOX pointed out that “Stephanopoulos said Trump was found ‘liable for rape’ 10 times during the exchange.”
Before embarking on a media career, Stephanopoulos served as the White House Communications Director and then the Senior Advisor to the President during the Clinton administration. Stephanopoulos is a Democrat.
ABC hired the former political advisor shortly after he left the Clinton White House. The Walt Disney Company (“Disney”) has owned the network since 1996, and therefore the entire time Stephanopoulos has worked there.
>> LAWYER FANI WILLIS ALLEGEDLY HAD AFFAIR WITH RESIGNS FROM TRUMP CASE <<
Again from FOX:
A federal jury in New York decided that Trump was not liable for rape but was liable for sexual abuse and defamation in the 2023 civil trial of advice columnist E. Jean Carroll vs. Trump. The former president has called the verdict a “disgrace,” and denied all wrongdoing.
The Blaze’s Chris Enloe emphasized that the decision was a civil ruling and not a criminal one.
“[The ruling] raised questions precisely because Trump has never been criminally convicted of rape — let alone charged with the crime — and because the civil jury found Trump not liable for rape,” Enloe wrote. “Importantly, Trump maintains his innocence to this day.”
