Donald Trump gloated after a Florida judge rejected a motion to dismiss his defamation lawsuit against ABC News and host George Stephanopoulos Wednesday.
Attorneys for the network and Stephanopoulos had asked a federal judge to throw out the former president's defamation suit based on a March interview with Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC) where the host asked her "more than 10 times" whether Trump had been found “liable for rape” in the E. Jean Carroll civil case.
But District judge Cecilia Altonaga allowed the case to move forward.
"A big win today in high Florida court against ABC fake News, and Liddle' George Slopadopolus," the former president posted in all capital letters on his Truth Social account.
"A powerful case! Before you know it, the fake news media will be forced by the courts to start telling the truth. This is a great day for our country. MAGA2024"
Defense attorneys had argued that Trump intends to re-litigate "a meritless theory of defamation" that has already been rejected twice in New York, arguing that a jury in that state had found the former president committed a violent sexual assault, so it would not be considered defamatory under Florida law to say that he had committed rape.
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“The 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,'” wrote New York-based District Judge Lewis Kaplan in that case.
“Indeed, as the evidence at trial recounted below makes clear, the jury found that Mr. Trump in fact did exactly that.”
Trump was ordered to pay $83.3 million in damages to author E. Jean Carroll after the jury found him liable for sexual abuse and defamation.
