excalibur
Diamond Member
- Mar 19, 2015
- 20,194
- 38,954
Good.
It was an obvious defamation by Stephanopoulos.
An out-of-court settlement and an on-the-air apology should end this.
www.courthousenews.com
It was an obvious defamation by Stephanopoulos.
An out-of-court settlement and an on-the-air apology should end this.
A federal judge in Miami Wednesday denied ABC News' request to dismiss Donald Trump’s defamation lawsuit against the network and one of its star journalists, George Stephanopoulos, relating to the the anchor's comment that the former president had been "found liable for rape."
In a 21-page ruling, U.S. District Judge Cecilia Altonaga rejected the news network's and host's arguments that the suit should be dismissed because the statements made were "substantially true" and Stephanopoulos is shielded by the fair report privilege available to him under Florida law.
Trump's suit stems from an interview Stephanopoulos conducted in March with Republican U.S. Representative Nancy Mace during his show "This Week with George Stephanopoulos." The anchor asked Mace about her endorsement of Trump despite the fact he was "found liable for rape."
He repeated the phrase ten times during the interview, at one point stating: "Judges and two separate juries have found him liable for rape," and the "judge affirmed that it was, in fact, rape."
Nine days later, Trump filed his defamation lawsuit in the Southern District Court of Florida.
Altonaga wrote that she is was not persuaded by the network's collateral estoppel defense, which precludes a party from relitigating an issue that has been decided against them, if they had a fair opportunity to fully litigate the point. The defendants' pointed to Carroll v. Trump, relating to E. Jean Carroll's accusations that Trump sexually assaulted and raped her.
Stephanopoulos' statement at issue refers the civil cases brought Carroll brought against Trump in 2019.
"Here, the 'facts and realties' of the prior litigation show that Judge Kaplan's findings, however broadly they were phrased, arose while considering a meaningfully distinct context from the 'facts and realties' presented in this case given Plaintiff's allegations," Altonaga wrote Wednesday.
"In Carroll II, Judge Kaplan was reviewing a jury's damages award. His analysis necessarily focused on what Carroll had and had not proved at trial, as well as the harm Carroll experienced from Plaintiff's abuse. There was no discussion of how to accurately report on the jury's findings," the George W. Bush appointee added.
Because Stephanopoulos's statement was describing the jury's verdict and not Trump's actions or Carroll's testimony, a reasonable jury could find interpret it as defamatory, the judge wrote.
...
Federal judge allows Trump’s defamation suit against ABC News to proceed
The judge declined to dismiss the former president's lawsuit against the television network and George Stephanopoulos.
www.courthousenews.com
