Donald Trump’s legal team has proposed a ruling to reject an attempt by ABC and host George Stephanopoulos to dismiss the defamation lawsuit filed against them by the former president.
Alejandro Brito has called on Florida to dismiss a move to deregister the network following an interview Stephanopoulos conducted with South Carolina Republican Rep. Nancy Mace.
Trump is suing ABC and Stephanopoulos for falsely suggesting in the interview that a jury found him guilty of raping former Elle columnist E. Jean Carroll in the 1990s. In May 2023, a New York civil jury found that Trump was responsible for sexually abusing Carroll. , and then defamed his character while denying that the attack had taken place. The court ordered him to pay $5 million in damages. Jurors found that Trump sexually abused Carroll and raped her.
In March, Stephanopoulos interviewed Mace, a rape survivor, about why she supports Trump as president after “judges and two separate juries held him accountable for rape and defamation of the victim of that rape. “
Trump’s legal team was reached for comment via email.
ABC News tried to have the case ignored, though it noted that Judge Lewis Kaplan, who oversaw the civil trial in New York, has since ruled that Trump committed rape under a broader definition set in other states. At the time of the trial, New York law explained that rape was committed with the genitals. In January 2024, New York expanded its definition of rape to include non-consensual anal, oral, and vaginal sexual contact.
In his latest court papers, Brito said Trump’s lawsuit does not concern the legal definition of rape or sexual assault, but rather the network’s and Stephanopoulos’ “unquestionably false, knowingly false and defamatory” statements about what the jury had said. Case.
“As the defendants readily admit in their motion, and as alleged in the complaint that Stephanopoulos knew at the time he made the defamatory statements, [Trump] was never found liable through a jury for the violation of Carroll, as that term goes. it is explained in the New York Penal Code.
“Although evidently possessing such knowledge, Stephanopoulos deliberately and maliciously stated several times the segment in which Trump had been found guilty by various juries of the Carroll rape, when in fact the particular jury found that Carroll had failed to prove it. owing to the preponderance of the evidence that the author had violated, Stephanopoulos’ statements in this regard were false and defamatory.
ABC’s legal team reached out for comment via email.
Brito asked that the motion to dismiss the appeal be dismissed and that “any additional relief that this Court deems just and appropriate” be granted if the former president wins the case.
In their move to dismiss the appeal, the network’s lawyers said Stephanopoulos “expressly referred” to a July 2023 Washington Post article titled “Judge Clarifies: Yes, Trump Was Found to Have Raped E. Jean Carroll” when he made his comments to Mace.
The article cites a move through Kaplan rejecting Trump’s attempt to overturn the $5 million fine and order a new civil trial for sexual assault and defamation.
“The definition of rape in New York criminal law is much narrower than the buzzword meaning of ‘rape,’ its definition in some dictionaries, in some federal and state criminal laws, and elsewhere,” Kaplan wrote in July 2023.
“The fact that Ms. Carroll failed to prove that she was ‘raped’ within the meaning of New York criminal law does not mean that she did not prove that Mr. Carroll was a ‘raped’ woman. Trump ‘raped’ her, as many other people perceive the word ‘rape’. In fact, as the evidence at trial makes clear, the jury concluded that Mr. Trump had done that right. “
The ruling also said Trump violated Carroll and ruled that the former president could not argue otherwise in Carroll’s second defamation lawsuit, which Trump lost and was ordered to pay another $83 million in damages.
“Therefore, the fact that Mr. Trump sexually abused — or even raped — Ms. Carroll has been conclusively established and is binding in this case,” Kaplan said in January.
Ewan Palmer is a Newsweek News reporter founded in London, UK. It focuses on U. S. politics, domestic politics, and the courts. He joined Newsweek in February 2018 after spending several years working at the UK’s International Business Times, where he primarily reported on crime. , policy and existing issues. Prior to that, he worked as a freelancer after graduating from the University of Sunderland in 2010. Languages: English.
You can reach Ewan by emailing e. palmer@newsweek. com.
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