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Getty ImagesDonald Trump sued ABC News and George Stephanopoulos for defamation on Monday over the anchor’s interview with Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC) earlier this month, where he questioned how Mace could support a presidential candidate found liable for sexual abuse.
In the 20-page complaint filed in Florida, Trump argued that Stephanopoulos defamed him by saying on-air that a jury found him liable for raping writer E. Jean Carrol when the jury had specifically found him liable for “sexual abuse.” That distinction, the former president claimed, made Stephanopoulos’ repeated on-air use of the word “rape” a form of defamation. “ABC News has no comment,” a network spokeperson told The Daily Beast.
A Manhattan jury found Trump liable for sexual abuse last year and awarded Carroll a $5 million verdict as a result. When asked if it believed Trump raped Carroll, the jury checked a “no” box on a verdict sheet—solely due to the definition of rape in New York state law being nonconsensual penile penetration. The jury could not consider that Trump raped her over her allegation that he penetrated her with his fingers.
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