A federal judge this week allowed former President Donald Trump’s defamation lawsuit against ABC News to continue, formally rejecting a motion filed by the broadcast network to dismiss the case on First Amendment grounds.
The lawsuit, filed in March, accuses ABC newsman George Stephanopolous of defaming Trump when he repeatedly claimed that the former president was found liable of rape in a civil case brought by writer E. Jean Carroll.
The comments were made during a broadcast of ABC’s political affairs program “This Week” while Stephanopolous was interviewing South Carolina Representative Nancy Mace about her support for Trump in spite of his legal case.
Trump was found liable for sexual assault, not rape. The two acts are legally distinct in New York, where Carroll brought her case.
Ex-President Donald Trump is suing ABC News and its Sunday anchor George Stephanopolous over this exchange with Rep. Nancy Mace that occurred on “This Week” in which the journalist repeatedly said he was found legally liable for rape. [ABC News] https://t.co/E2XVJV2VhD $DIS pic.twitter.com/EVK5jHQSwb
— TheDesk.net (@TheDeskDotNet) March 19, 2024
Despite this, Stephanopolous erroneously claimed Trump was found liable for rape at least 10 times during the Sunday morning news segment. It is not clear if he was aware that his assertions were incorrect. ABC News did not rebroadcast the segment in later airings of “This Week,” which also streams on ABC News Live, following public criticism about the way Stephanopolous conducted the interview with Mace, who revealed herself as a victim of rape several years ago; Trump filed his lawsuit within days of the initial airing.
In a motion to dismiss the case, attorneys for ABC say the network is protected by “collateral estoppel,” a legal doctrine that prevents a party to a lawsuit from re-litigating certain matters that were already settled by a court or jury. The network also claimed Stephanopolous was shielded by a Florida law that affords journalists certain legal protections from lawsuits concerning their reporting, and that the overall statements about Trump made during the interview were “substantially correct.”
On Wednesday, U.S. Judge Cecilia Altonaga rejected the network’s motion, saying the mere fact that sexual abuse and rape are felonious crimes in New York does not necessarily protect Stephanopolous from his mistakes, especially in a lawsuit brought in Florida.
“Public accounts of sexual assault may align with the commonly-used definitions of rape,” the judge wrote, “but Stephanopolous was not reporting on statements by Carroll or other commentators — rather, he was discussing the outcome of a legal proceeding in which the jury expressly rejected a charge of rape, as defined by New York Penal Law.”
Moreover, the judge found that the fair reporting privilege in Florida law “does not protect media where the omission of important context renders a report misleading.”
“Here, a reasonable viewer…could have been misled by Stephanopolous’ statements, which did not include the jury’s original findings and only fleetingly referenced the interpretation [the New York judge] later offered,” Altonaga concluded.
The denial of ABC’s motion to dismiss now allows Trump’s lawsuit against the network to move forward. Trump has demanded a jury trial in the case.
“A jury may, upon viewing the segment, find there was sufficient context — but a reasonable jury could conclude Plaintiff was defamed and, as a result, dismissal is inappropriate,” Altonaga said.
ABC News declined to comment when reached by reporters on Wednesday. Trump hailed the matter as a partial victory in his case, writing on his Truth Social platform that ABC was “fake news.”
Trump is still scheduled to participate in a presidential debate organized by ABC News earlier this year, one that will presumably include his new Democratic challenger, Vice President Kamala Harris. The debate is scheduled to take place on September 10.
