Trump has filed a lawsuit against ABC News and George Stephanopoulos for pointing out that he was found legally liable for the rape of E. Jean Carroll.
According to the new lawsuit, the host of ABC's Sunday news program 'This Week With George Stephanopoulos' falsely claimed multiple times that Trump had been found liable for the rape of Ms. E. Jean Carroll by several juries.
The lawsuit, filed on Monday in U.S. District Court in Southern Florida, accuses Stephanopoulos of making the statements with malice and a disregard for the truth. It said the statements were distributed widely to third parties and repeated.
The lawsuit refers to a March 10 interview with U.S. Representative Nancy Mace, a Republican who has spoken publicly about being raped as a teenager. Stephanopoulos said Trump was found liable for rape and asked her how she could endorse the candidate.
On ABC's This Week, Stephanopoulos said, “Donald Trump has been found liable for rape by a jury. Donald Trump has been found liable for defaming the victim of that rape by a jury. It’s been affirmed by a judge.”Under New York law, Trump was found liable for sexual assault, but the judge later clarified in a ruling that Trump digitally raped E. Jean Carroll.
Judge Kaplan wrote,
“And since the jury’s answer to Question 1 demonstrates it was unconvinced that there was penile penetration, the only remaining conclusion is that it found that Mr. Trump forcibly penetrated her vagina with his fingers – in other words, that he “raped” her in the sense of that term broader than the New York Penal Law definition.” This defamation lawsuit filed by Trump seems unfounded and may not succeed.
It appears that the purpose of the lawsuit is not to win but to intimidate other media organizations from discussing Trump as a rapist. Donald Trump aims to create a chilling effect in the media, seeking to conceal the fact that he has been found legally liable for sexually assaulting E. Jean Carroll.
This lawsuit is likely to fail, similar to Donald Trump's other misuses of the court system.
The intention of this lawsuit seems to be to deter other media outlets from reporting on Trump as a rapist, rather than to secure a favorable outcome in court.
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