Case, brought after host George Stephanopoulos said Trump had been \u2018found liable for rape\u2019, allowed to proceed<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A federal judge in Miami has denied a motion to dismiss Donald Trump\u2019s defamation lawsuit against the ABC News TV network and one of its star journalists, George Stephanopoulos, concerning remarks made by the anchor in March that the former president had been \u201cfound liable for rape\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In a 21-page ruling<\/a> issued on Wednesday, the judge, Cecilia Altonaga of the US district court for the southern district of Florida, rejected arguments brought by the news division and its host. She said that a \u201creasonable jury\u201d could conclude that Trump had been defamed, and, as a result, \u201cdismissal is inappropriate\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The decision allows the case to proceed to the discovery phase and possible trial.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Trump heralded the ruling as a \u201cbig win\u201d. In a post on his Truth Social<\/a> platform, he repeated his offensive moniker for the TV host as \u201cLIDDLE GEORGE SLOPADOPOLUS\u201d and said the judgment would force the \u201cfake news media\u201d to tell the truth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The anchor made his contested comment in an interview broadcast on ABC\u2019s Sunday news program, This Week With George Stephanopoulos, on 10 March this year. In it, he asked Nancy Mace, the Republican congresswoman from South Carolina, why she had endorsed Trump\u2019s presidential run<\/a> even though he had been \u201cfound liable for rape\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Trump lodged his defamation lawsuit<\/a> nine days later.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The disputed remark concerned the civil cases that had been brought against Trump in New York by the writer and former Elle magazine advice columnist E Jean Carroll<\/a>. In 2019, she accused Trump, who was then in the White House, of sexually assaulting and raping her in an encounter in the 1990s.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Trump denied the allegations and made critical comments about Carroll, which she then challenged in a defamation lawsuit against him. She also issued a separate lawsuit seeking damages for sexual assault.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In the sexual assault case, a jury found<\/a> in May last year in New York that Trump had \u201csexually abused\u201d her but not that he had \u201craped\u201d her. Under New York law, rape is defined as penile penetration whereas the jury found that he had digitally penetrated her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n