Judge Denies ABC News and George Stephanopoulos’s Motion to Dismiss Trump’s Defamation Lawsuit
JOSE LUIS MAGANA/ASSOCIATED PRESS
A federal judge on Wednesday denied ABC News and George Stephanopoulos’s motion to dismiss former President Trump’s lawsuit, which claims the anchor defamed him during a March interview. The ruling allows Trump’s suit against the network and Stephanopoulos to proceed, following the anchor’s repeated on-air statements that the former president had been found “liable for rape” in a lawsuit brought by advice columnist E. Jean Carroll. The jury had found Trump liable for sexual abuse, but not rape.
In a 21-page ruling issued on Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Cecilia Altonaga rejected several defenses presented by ABC, including the argument that they were protected by a fair reporting privilege. Trump hailed the ruling as a “big win,” referring to the anchor as “little George Slopadopolus” in a post on Truth Social. “Before you know it, the fake news media will be forced by the courts to start telling the truth,” Trump wrote.
Trump’s defamation claims concern Stephanopoulos’s March 10 interview with Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.) on “This Week.” During the interview, Stephanopoulos stated 10 times that a jury had found Trump liable for rape. The federal lawsuit, filed in Miami, seeks an unspecified amount of damages.
Much of the network’s defense relied on a ruling by U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan, an appointee of former President Clinton, who oversaw Carroll’s trials against Trump. Though the jury didn’t find Trump liable for rape under New York’s definition, Kaplan rejected Trump’s claims that Carroll was defaming him by continuing to describe it as rape, saying the legal distinction “is minimal.”
ABC and Stephanopoulos argued that Kaplan’s ruling should bind Trump’s new lawsuit. However, Judge Altonaga denied this argument, indicating it remained unclear if the anchor’s statements were substantially true.
“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, appointed by former President George W. Bush, wrote in her ruling.
The decision allows the case to move into the discovery process and closer to trial. “Once again, the Court does not find that a reasonable jury must — or even is likely to — conclude Stephanopoulos’s statements were defamatory,” Altonaga wrote. “A jury may, upon viewing the segment, find there was sufficient context,” she continued. “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.”
