Trump Urges Denial of ABC's Motion to Dismiss His Defamation Complaint

Stephanopoulos’ March 10 interview with Rep. Nancy Mace, R-S.C., in which Trump alleges Stephanopoulos repeatedly said that multiple juries found Trump liable for raping journalist E. Jean Carroll (see 2403190059), said Trump’s opposition. In 2023, a federal jury found Trump liable for sexually assaulting Carroll, but not liable for raping her. Trump has appealed that verdict. Despite ABC’s attempt to cast the allegations in the complaint in a light that fits their theories of defense, this case isn’t about “the difference between rape and sexual battery,” nor is it about ABC’s attempts “to minimize the significant distinctions that exist between these terms,” said Trump’s opposition. The claims, rather, relate to Stephanopoulos’ “unmistakably untruthful, knowingly false, and defamatory statements as to what the jury in the Carroll II case actually determined,” it said. As ABC and Stephanopoulos readily admit in their motion to dismiss, Trump “has never been found liable by a jury for raping Carroll,” as that term is defined under New York’s penal code, it said. Despite “plainly possessing such knowledge,” Stephanopoulos "intentionally and maliciously repeatedly stated" more than 10 times during the Mace interview that Trump had been found liable or guilty by multiple juries for the rape of Carroll, it said. In fact, the jury specifically held that Carroll didn’t prove by a preponderance of the evidence that Trump raped her, it said. Stephanopoulos’ statements in this regard were “false and defamatory.”