NEW: Trump Sues Stephanopoulos, ABC for Defamation Over Mace Interview

Former President Donald Trump may be playing defense in a number of legal matters at the moment, but he's also going on offense over comments made by ABC News' George Stephanopoulos during an interview with South Carolina Congresswoman Nancy Mace (R) in early March.

As RedState noted after the interview, not only did Stephanopolous attempt to victim-shame Mace over her support of Trump, but he also mischaracterized legal findings against Trump, stating that "judges and two separate juries have found him liable for rape."

Now, Trump has filed a suit for defamation against Stephanopoulos and ABC over those remarks.

Trump’s lawsuit takes aim at how Stephanopoulos at multiple points in his questioning said Trump had been found “liable for rape.” The jury had found Trump liable for sexual abuse under New York law, but not rape.
“Judges and two separate juries have found him liable for rape and for defaming the victim of that rape. How do you square your endorsement of Donald Trump with the testimony we just saw, ” Stephanopoulos asked during the interview.
“These statements were and remain false, 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,” Trump’s attorney, Alejandro Brito, wrote in the 20-page complaint.
“Indeed, the jury expressly found that Plaintiff did not commit rape and, as demonstrated below, Defendant George Stephanopoulos was aware of the jury’s finding in this regard yet still falsely stated otherwise,” Brito continued.

The 20-page complaint, which may be viewed in its entirety below, pleads two counts — one for defamation per se (statements automatically deemed harmful) and one for defamation per quod (statements the plaintiff must prove caused damage) — and seeks an unspecified amount of damages.

As noted in the complaint, the jury, though it found Trump liable for defamation and sexual abuse in the E. Jean Carroll suit tried first (Carroll II), declined to find him liable for rape. (The second Carroll trial involved only a claim for defamation.) And, as the complaint points out, Stephanopoulos was well aware of this, as he specifically asked Carroll about it in an interview shortly after the initial verdict in May of 2023.

Of particular note, Stephanopoulos specifically asked Carroll, 'How about yesterday in the courtroom, the first, the first announcement was made, and it was that he was not found liable for rape. What were you thinking at that moment?' (emphasis added).

Now, here's where Stephanopoulos and ABC may have some wiggle room: Following that initial verdict and Carroll's repeated statements after it that Trump had raped her, Trump countersued Carroll for defamation in the then-still pending defamation case (Carroll I). In dismissing that counterclaim, Judge Lewis Kaplan ruled that Carroll's use of the term "rape" to describe Trump's actions was "substantially true."

U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan dismissed Trump’s argument, ruling that Carroll’s statement on CNN was substantially true. Kaplan concluded that there “would have been no different effect on the mind of an average listener.”
The difference between Ms. Carroll’s allegedly defamatory statements — that Mr. Trump ‘raped’ her as defined in the New York Penal Law — and the ‘truth’ — that Mr. Trump forcibly digitally penetrated Ms. Carroll — is minimal. Both are felonious sex crimes.

Either way, though, Stephanopolous' comments during the Mace interview were incorrect — something that he knew or should have known. Zero juries found Trump liable for rape. One judge determined that one jury's finding of "sexual abuse" basically amounted to the same thing — in a matter that has since been appealed.

Fortunately for Trump, that judge won't be the one making determinations in this latest lawsuit. It was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida and is pending before Judge Cecilia Altonaga, who's served on that court since she was appointed by President George W. Bush in 2003. That, of course, does not guarantee what the outcome of the litigation will be. But it does at least guarantee that one judge (Kaplan), who apparently doesn't give much credence to legal definitions and distinctions, won't be presiding.

gov.uscourts.flsd.664183.1.0 by Susie Moore on Scribd