Judge won’t dismiss Trump’s defamation suit against ABC News and George Stephanopoulos

Washington (CNN) — A federal judge on Wednesday refused to dismiss former President Donald Trump’s lawsuit against ABC News and George Stephanopoulos over the anchor’s assertion that a jury concluded Trump had “raped” E. Jean Carroll.

Trump filed the lawsuit in Florida federal court earlier this year, arguing that Stephanopoulos and the network defamed him when Stephanopoulos said during a contentious on-air interview with Rep. Nancy Mace that a jury found Trump had “raped” Carroll, a writer whose own cases against Trump led to him being found liable for sexual abuse.

The ruling Wednesday amounted to a victory for Trump, who can now move forward with the case as he dives into the 2024 presidential campaign, where he routinely bashes the press for what he believes is unfair coverage.

An ABC News spokesperson declined to comment on the ruling.

While a Manhattan federal jury last year found that Trump sexually abused Carroll, and held him liable for battery, the jury did not find that she proved her claim that he raped her. However, months later, while dismissing Trump’s countersuit against Carroll, US Judge Lewis Kaplan concluded that the claim Trump raped Carroll was “substantially true,” writing that “he ‘raped’ her in the broader sense of that word, as people generally understand it, though not as it is narrowly defined by New York state law.

In the Trump-ABC lawsuit, US District Judge Cecilia Altonaga, an appointee of former President George W. Bush, wrote Wednesday that these definitions were different enough to let the case move forced.

“New York has opted to separate out a crime of rape. 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, adding that this case would turn on “whether it is substantially true to say a jury (or juries) found (Trump) liable for rape by a jury despite the jury’s verdict expressly finding he was not liable for rape.”

Altonaga went on to say, “Judge Kaplan was reviewing a jury’s damages award. His analysis necessarily focused on what Carroll had and had not proved at trial, as well as the harm Carroll experienced from (Trump’s) abuse. There was no discussion of how to accurately report on the jury’s findings.”

The judge made clear in her 21-page ruling that she wasn’t weighing in – one way or the other – on the merits of Trump’s claim that he was defamed by ABC News, and wasn’t trying to suggest that he’ll win the case.

In a heated interview on “This Week” in March, Stephanopoulos repeatedly pressed Mace, a rape survivor, over her continued support for Trump, in the wake of the legal cases that awarded $88 million to Carroll for Trump’s battery and defamation against her.

“Stephanopoulos’s exchange with Mace lasted about ten minutes, during which Stephanopoulos stated ten times that a jury — or juries — had found Plaintiff liable for rape,” Altonaga ‘wrote in her ruling Wednesday. “In fact, of course, the Carroll II jury did not find (Trump) liable for rape under New York Penal Law; it was Judge Kaplan who determined that the jury’s verdict amounted to liability for rape.”

Trump, who regularly demonizes the press and has filed numerous unsuccessful lawsuits against news outlets, hailed Altonaga’s ruling as a “BIG WIN” against “ABC FAKE NEWS” in a post on his Truth Social platform.

CNN’s Oliver Darcy contributed reporting.

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