Trump Defamation Suit Against ABC Can Continue

Donald Trump got another piece of good news on the legal front this week.

A federal judge has ordered that Trump’s defamation case against ABC News and George Stephanopoulos can proceed.

The case, if you recall, comes from Stephanopoulos claiming that Trump had been found liable for rape, but that claim did not match the jury verdict.

Right or Wrong

This is a really interesting case because the jury verdict differs from what the presiding judge stated after the verdict was announced.

The jury did not rule in favor of the rape claim, but instead found Trump liable for a lesser degree of sexual assault.

That is the formal verdict, but after the fact, Judge Kaplan wrote, “The finding that Ms. Carroll failed to prove that she was ‘raped’ within the meaning of the New York Penal Law does not mean that she failed to prove that Mr. Trump ‘raped’ her as many people commonly understand the word ‘rape.’”

When ABC News did its piece on the case, Stephanopoulos, while not directly quoting the judge, reported that Trump had been found liable for rape.

Trump immediately filed suit, which claimed, "Stephanopoulos' false, defamatory, and misleading statements about Plaintiff immediately spread like wildfire, as numerous third parties and media outlets repeated and reposted them to countless viewers."

Trump’s attorney explained, “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.

“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.”

After the judge declined the motion by the defendants to dismiss the case, Trump did a victory lap on Truth Social.

He responded, "A power case! Before you know it, the fake news media will be forced by the courts to start telling the truth.

"This is a great day for our country. MAGA2024!"

I don’t have any inkling how this case will go once it gets into the courtroom, but I hope Trump buries ABC News and makes them pay so they will actually start reporting honestly for a change.