Donald Trump's is suing ABC News for falsely suggesting that a jury found him liable for raping E. Jean Carroll, despite the judge in the civil case twice saying that he did rape the former Elle columnist.
On Monday, Trump sued ABC News and George Stephanopoulos, claiming that the host made repeated "false" claims that a jury had found the former president liable for raping Carroll at a Bergdorf Goodman store in the 1990s.
Stephanopoulos made the remarks while questioning South Carolina Representative Nancy Mace, a rape survivor, on why she is still supporting Trump for the presidency after "judges and two separate juries have found him liable for rape and for defaming the victim of that rape."
In May 2023, a New York civil jury found Trump liable for sexually abusing the writer and then defaming her character while denying the assault took place, and ordered him to pay $5 million in damages. The jurors found Trump sexually abused Carroll, not that he raped her.
Judge Lewis Kaplan, who oversaw the civil trial, has since written in two separate filings that despite not being found liable by the civil jury of rape under the New York Penal Law—which does not categorize rape in criminal prosecutions as digital penetration—the former president committed the act under a broader definition defined in other states.
Kaplan first made the distinction while rejecting Trump's attempt to throw out the $5 million penalty and order a new sexual battery and defamation civil trial.
"The definition of rape in the New York Penal Law is far narrower than the meaning of 'rape' in common modern parlance, its definition in some dictionaries, in some federal and state criminal statutes, and elsewhere," Kaplan wrote in July 2023.
"The finding that Ms. Carroll failed to prove that she was 'raped' within the meaning of the New York Penal Law does not mean that she failed to prove that Mr Trump 'raped' her as many people commonly understand the word 'rape.' Indeed, as the evidence at trial recounted makes clear, the jury found that Mr Trump in fact did exactly that."
The judge once again said that Trump raped Carroll while ruling that the former president could not try and argue otherwise in the second defamation suit by Carroll, which Trump lost and was ordered to pay a further $83 million in damages.
"Consequently, the fact that Mr Trump sexually abused—indeed, raped—Ms Carroll has been conclusively established and is binding in this case," Kaplan said in January.
The crux of Trump's lawsuit against ABC News appears to be more focused on Stephanopoulos suggested Trump was twice found "liable" for rape, which neither jury did, and whether the host willfully made the false claims.
"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 attorney, Alejandro Brito, wrote.
"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."
Trump's legal team has been contacted for comment via email. ABC News declined to comment when reached by Newsweek.
In a lengthy post on X, formerly Twitter, lawyer and frequent Trump critic George Conway said that the former president will only "bring more attention" to his attack on Carroll with his latest lawsuit.
"The theory of Trump's complaint here is that, since the jury unanimously found that Trump forcibly and without consent penetrated Carroll's vagina with his fingers and not his penis, and since this constituted sexual assault and not rape as defined by the New York Penal Code, Stephanopoulos libeled him by saying he had been held liable for 'rape,' even though the judge in the Carroll case has held multiple times since the verdict that in common parlance (and the law of most other jurisdictions) forcible digital penetration is rape," Conway wrote.
"In other words, Trump is suing Stephanopoulos and ABC because Stephanopoulos repeated what a federal district judge has said repeatedly in written opinions. By bringing this lawsuit, Trump will only bring more public attention to what he did to Carroll. And he and his lawyers may very well be—in fact, ought to be—sanctioned.
"Another brilliant stable-genius move. Trump is not only a rapist, he's a nut job, and a very, very dumb one at that."
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Ewan Palmer is a Newsweek News Reporter based in London, U.K. His focus is reporting on US politics, domestic policy ... Read more
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