Allies of Donald Trump are pushing for him to file a lawsuit against Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker, who railed against the now-president elect on the campaign trail, calling him a “adjudicated rapist.”
Trump recently settled a defamation lawsuit he brought against ABC News and George Stephanopoulos after the news anchor said on air that Trump was found liable for the rape of writer E. Jean Carroll. A jury found Trump liable for sexual abuse, not rape, though a judge later said it was accurate to say he was liable for rape in “common modern parlance.” The network agreed to pay a Trump-related foundation $15 million.
Former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich, a former Democrat who was pardoned by Trump of corruption charges, floated the idea of suing Pritzker in a post on X Monday, urging the president-elect to sue the Illinois governor, who served as a surrogate for both President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris on the campaign trail.
“Now that Trump successfully won his defamation case against ABC for calling him a ‘rapist,’ when will he sue Illinois Governor JB Pritzker for repeatedly lying & calling him the same thing?” Blagojevich said.
Pritzker, through a spokesperson, declined to comment.
This comes amid a new strategy Trump has begun to use private lawsuits to go after his critics. And the call to go after a political opponent is a new step that goes beyond suing journalists, who are under a professional obligation to provide accurate information.
The conservative news outlet Illinois Review picked up on Blagojevich’s statement, and Roger Stone, another ally who was pardoned by Trump, reposted the story urging Trump to sue.
The Trump transition team did not return a request for comment.
Political speech has historically been protected by the First Amendment.
CORRECTION: An earlier version of this post misstated the status of Stone's case.