Donald Trump sues ABC News for defamation over report citing rape case
- ABC News host said Donald Trump was ‘liable for rape’ during an interview with a US congresswoman
- George Stephanopoulos was referring to the rape case of E. Jean Carroll and the former US president
Donald Trump has filed a defamation lawsuit against ABC News and television host George Stephanopoulos over comments the news anchor made on air involving the rape case brought against the former US president by writer E. Jean Carroll.
The new lawsuit said the anchor of ABC’s Sunday news programme 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 US District Court in Southern Florida, accuses Stephanopoulos, a former White House adviser under Bill Clinton’s presidency, of making the statements with malice and a disregard for the truth. It said the statements were distributed widely to third parties and repeated.
ABC News said it had no comment on the lawsuit.
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The lawsuit cites a March 10 interview with US congresswoman 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.
A New York jury in May said Trump must pay US$5 million in damages for sexually abusing Carroll in the 1990s and then defaming her by branding her a liar.
Since launching his first presidential campaign in 2015, Trump has often attacked media outlets whose coverage he dislikes.
He has filed multiple similar unsuccessful defamation lawsuits, including a US$475 million case against CNN that was thrown out by a federal judge in July.
