Trump filed a lawsuit against ABC News and George Stephanopoulos for pointing out that he was found legally liable for the rape of E. Jean Carroll.
The new lawsuit said the anchor of ABC’s Sunday news program “This Week With George Stephanopoulos” “falsely stated on several occasions that Plaintiff had been found liable by multiple juries for the rape of Ms. E. Jean Carroll.
The lawsuit, filed on Monday in U.S. District Court in Southern Florida, accuses Stephanopoulos of making the statements with malice and a disregard for the truth. It said the statements were distributed widely to third parties and repeated.
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The lawsuit cites a March 10 interview with U.S. Representative Nancy Mace, a Republican who has spoken publicly about being raped as a teenager. Stephanopoulos said Trump was found liable for rape and asked her how she could endorse the candidate.
Stephanopoulos said on ABC’s This Week, “Donald Trump has been found liable for rape by a jury. Donald Trump has been found liable for defaming the victim of that rape by a jury. It’s been affirmed by a judge.”
Technically under New York law, Trump was found liable for sexual assault, but the judge later clarified in a ruling that Trump digitally raped E. Jean Carroll.
Judge Kaplan wrote, “And since the jury’s answer to Question 1 demonstrates it was unconvinced that there was penile penetration, the only remaining conclusion is that it found that Mr. Trump forcibly penetrated her vagina with his fingers – in other words, that he “raped” her in the sense of that term broader than the New York Penal Law definition.”
Trump has no grounds for this bogus defamation lawsuit that is likely to get laughed out of court.
The point of the lawsuit doesn’t seem to be to win but to scare other media organizations from talking about Trump as a rapist. Donald Trump is trying to create a chilling effect in the media as he does not want voters to know that he has been found legally liable for sexually attacking E. Jean Carroll.
This lawsuit is going to crash and burn just like all of Donald Trump’s other abuses of the court system.
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Jason is the managing editor. He is also a White House Press Pool and a Congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. His graduate work focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.
Awards and Professional Memberships
Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association
