Former President Donald Trump is suing ABC News host George Stephanopoulos for falsely and allegedly knowingly claiming on air that the Republican was convicted of rape.
Trump has never been found guilty of raping any woman, but if you’re an ABC News viewer who tuned into “This Week” Sunday programming on March 10, you might be confused about that. Stephanopoulos repeatedly insisted in his interview with rape survivor Republican Rep. Nancy Mace that Trump was “found liable for [the] rape” of magazine writer E. Jean Carroll.
“You said women don’t come forward because they are afraid. They’re afraid to come forward because because they are defamed by those who commit the rape. That’s what Donald Trump has been guilty of doing,” the Clinton White House communications director claimed.
Trump’s lawyers filed a defamation lawsuit on Monday claiming Stephanopoulos’ nearly dozen statements linking Trump and rape amount to “actual malice or with a reckless disregard for the truth given that Defendant Stephanopoulos knows these statements are patently and demonstrably false.”
In 2019, after nearly three decades after the alleged incident, Carroll published a book that accused Trump of raping her in a department store dressing room after the pair had reportedly bumped into each other. When Trump publicly denied the allegations, she sued him for defamation and battery.
“Decades ago, the now President of the United States raped me. When I had the courage to speak out about the attack, he defamed my character, accused me of lying for personal gain, even insulted my appearance,” Carroll wrote in the lawsuit.
In 2023, a federal jury in New York was tasked with evaluating Caroll’s civil case against the former president. The first question on the verdict form asked “Did Ms. Caroll prove, by a preponderance of evidence, that Mr. Trump raped Ms. Carroll?” The jury marked no, instead determining that Trump was only responsible for damages related to the lesser charge of sexual abuse.
Mace insisted several times in the interview that Stephanopoulos’s questioning was not only inaccurate but also “offensive” and “shaming.” Yet the host did not back down.
“He was not found guilty in a criminal court of law. It was civil, it was sexual abuse. It wasn’t actually rape. By the way, E. Jean Carroll joked about all the money she’s going to get and made a mockery out of this case. And I think that’s offensive,” Mace said.
Despite the clear-cut nature of this verdict and Trump’s legal team’s insistence, ABC News also refused to retract Stephanopoulos’s comments. In a statement to Fox News Digital, ABC claimed “George did his job by asking meaningful questions that are relevant to our viewers.”
ABC’s refusal to correct the record, Trump’s lawyers noted, has inflicted damage far beyond the network’s bounds.
“Since making such false, malicious, and defamatory statements, many news and press outlets have continued to quote Stephanopoulos by wrongfully broadcasting that Plaintiff was found liable for rape,” Trump’s lawyers wrote.
