Federal Judge Declines to Dismiss Trump’s Defamation Lawsuit Against ABC News and Stephanopoulos

George Stephanopoulos attends an event at The 92nd Street Y, New York in New York City on Sept. 12, 2023. Roy Rochlin/Getty Images

A federal judge denied a motion from George Stephanopoulos and ABC News to dismiss former President Donald Trump’s defamation lawsuit against them.

The decision on July 24 by U.S. District Judge Cecilia Altonaga allows the former president to proceed with a lawsuit against ABC News and its anchor Mr. Stephanopoulos following a March on-air interview in which Mr. Stephanopoulos said multiple times that the former president was found “liable for rape” in a suit that was brought by writer E. Jean Carroll. A New York jury found that he was liable for sexual abuse—not rape—which the former president has vehemently denied.

“Defendants have not met their burden of proving the fair report privilege applies,” Judge Altonaga wrote in the ruling. “Any remaining questions as to the reasonableness of Stephanopoulos’s statements are not for resolution on a motion to dismiss.”

At issue is a March 10 ABC News broadcast of “This Week” in which Mr. Stephanopoulos interviewed Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.) and asked her questions about the former president and said he was found “liable for rape.” The former president said the host’s statement was defamatory because the jury did not make that finding.

The federal lawsuit, filed in Miami by former President Trump, is seeking an unspecified amount of damages.

Judge Lewis A. Kaplan in the Southern District of New York had found that the jury’s finding in the case was the equivalent of rape. Both ABC and Mr. Stephanopoulos, a White House press secretary in the Clinton administration, cited the New York judge’s ruling in trying to have the former president’s lawsuit dismissed.

Lawyers for ABC and Mr. Stephanopoulos also asserted that statements in the interview were substantially true and protected under the fair report privilege, a legal doctrine that shields journalists from libel lawsuits when they report on fair and accurate accounts of official proceedings or documents.

“In this case, former President Trump seeks to re-litigate a meritless theory of defamation that he has already lost twice in New York. Mr. Trump is collaterally estopped from doing so here,” the attorneys wrote in May. “And if this Court were to reach the merits, at bottom, this case asserts that even after a jury has found that a person committed a violent sexual assault, it is defamatory to say that the person committed a ‘rape.’ That is not a proposition Florida law recognizes.”

According to Judge Kaplan’s 2023 ruling, the jury’s “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.’”

But in the July 24 decision, Judge Altonaga wrote that Mr. Stephanopoulos used the term in a different manner during his interview with Ms. Mace.

“Here, of course, New York has opted to separate out a crime of rape; and Stephanopoulos’s statements dealt not with the public’s usage of that term, but the jury’s consideration of it during a formal legal proceeding,” the judge wrote.

Judge Altonaga noted that the court did “not find that a reasonable jury must—or even is likely to—conclude Stephanopoulos’s statements were defamatory,” noting that the July 24 decision merely allows the case to move to the discovery phase and closer to a possible trial.

“A jury may, upon viewing the segment, find there was sufficient context,” she wrote. “A jury may also conclude Plaintiff fails to establish other elements of his claim. ... but a reasonable jury could conclude Plaintiff was defamed and, as a result, dismissal is inappropriate.”

In response, former President Trump lauded the judge’s decision on his Truth Social platform on the afternoon of July 24, calling it a “big win.”

“Before you know it, the fake news media will be forced by the courts to start telling the truth,” he wrote. “This is a great day for our country.”