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Former President Donald Trump has filed a defamation lawsuit against ABC News and anchor George Stephanopoulos, the Hill reports.
Trump claims that Stephanopoulous attempted to "shame" Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.), a rape survivor, by probing her endorsement of the former president despite recent verdicts against him in E. Jean Carroll's sexual battery and defamation lawsuits against him. Trump's defamation lawsuit specifies that Stephanopoulos said he was found "liable for rape," though the jury, instead, found him liable for sexual abuse under New York law.
“These statements were and remain false, and were made by Defendant Stephanopoulos with actual malice or with a reckless disregard for the truth given that Defendant Stephanopoulos knows that these statements are patently and demonstrably false,” Alejandro Brito, an attorney representing Trump, wrote in the 20-page complaint.
“Indeed, the jury expressly found that Plaintiff did not commit rape and, as demonstrated below, Defendant George Stephanopoulos was aware of the jury’s finding in this regard yet still falsely stated otherwise,” Brito added.
Trump asked for an unspecified amount of damages in the defamation lawsuit filed against ABC News and Stephanopoulous in a Miami federal court. The former president had unsuccessfully filed past defamation lawsuits against the New York Times, CNN and the Washington Post, as well as attempting to countersue Carroll, an advice columnist, over continuing to accuse him of rape on cable news following the jury's verdict.