A Florida judge refused to dismiss Donald Trump’s defamation lawsuit against ABC News and star anchor George Stephanopoulos, saying a jury “could conclude” Trump was defamed when Stephanopoulos said he was found liable for rape.
In a Wednesday ruling, District Judge Cecilia Altonaga found that Stephanopoulos’ implication that a jury found Trump liable for rape for the assault of E. Jean Carroll may not have been “substantially true.” She noted that the anchor appeared to misconstrue the common understanding of rape with how it’s defined under New York Penal Law, which indicates that rape must involve penile penetration.
“Here, of course, New York has opted to separate out a crime of rape; and Stephanopoulos’s statements dealt not with the public’s usage of that term, but the jury’s consideration of it during a formal legal proceeding,” Altonaga wrote.
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ABC News had no comment about the decision.
Trump lauded the decision on Truth Social, writing: “A BIG WIN TODAY IN HIGH FLORIDA COURT AGAINST ABC FAKE NEWS, AND LIDDLE’ GEORGE SLOPADOPOLUS. A POWERFUL CASE! BEFORE YOU KNOW IT, THE FAKE NEWS MEDIA WILL BE FORCED BY THE COURTS TO START TELLING THE TRUTH.”
The ruling allows the case to move forward to discovery.
Altonaga cited multiple examples where Stephanopoulos continued to refer to a jury’s decision on the case, even though it was Judge Lewis Kaplan who made the distinction between the legal and common understandings of rape in a clarifying motion.
“A jury may, upon viewing the segment, find there was sufficient context,” Altonaga wrote. “A jury may also conclude Plaintiff fails to establish other elements of his claim … But a reasonable jury could conclude Plaintiff was defamed and, as a result, dismissal is inappropriate.”
Trump sued the network and Stephanopoulos in March after the anchor pressed Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.) about the New York civil verdict, asking how she squared her endorsement of Trump with the jury’s findings on sexual abuse.
A Manhattan jury found Trump liable for sexual abuse last year and awarded Carroll a $5 million verdict as a result. When asked if they believed Trump raped Carroll, the jury checked a “no” box on a verdict sheet—solely due to the definition of rape in New York state law being nonconsensual penile penetration. The jury could not consider Carroll’s allegations rape. Kaplan later clarified the ruling.
