
Former President Donald Trump filed suit against ABC and mouthpiece George Stephanopoulos on Tuesday for defamation. The legal action stems from a contentious interview the host conducted on March 10 with Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC).
Stephanopoulos hounded Mace over her support for Trump by noting that two juries, by his reckoning, found the GOP frontrunner guilty of attacking accuser Jean Carroll. Only, that did not happen.
The truth is a New York jury found Trump did not attack Carroll but determined he defamed her. But that did not stop Stephanopoulos from claiming otherwise.
It was on an episode of ABC’s “This Week With George Stephanopoulos” when he embarked on his line of questioning.
The ABC host stooped so low as to question Mace over her support for Trump despite the well-publicized attack on her when she was a teenager.
The Republican congresswoman took great offense to Stephanopoulos dragging out the incident when she was a 16-year-old. Over the next several days, Mace repeatedly chastised the interviewer for attempting to tell her how she should feel as a woman and a victim of a horrific crime.
Trump Sues ABC News, George Stephanopoulos For Defamationhttps://t.co/2IBm9mO3DN
— Larry Elder (@larryelder) March 19, 2024
She also quite correctly noted that Trump was never found guilty of criminal charges. “He defended himself over that and denies that it ever happened, but he was not found guilty in a criminal court of law.”
Neither was he found guilty of the crime Stephanopoulos accused him of, and it is unthinkable that the host was not fully aware of this fact.
Trump attorney Alejandro Brito took great exception to the host’s comments. “These statements were and remain false, and were made by Defendant Stephanopoulos with actual malice or with a reckless disregard for the truth.”
Brito added the obvious fact of the jury’s decision. Despite this, “Defendant Stephanopoulos was aware of the jury’s finding in this regard yet still falsely stated otherwise.”
Trump asked for an undetermined award of damages.
Since the ABC interview, Mace has steadfastly criticized the interviewer for his bringing up her status as a survivor of a violent attack at 16. She said she lived “for 30 years with an incredible amount of shame” over the incident and that Stephanopoulos attempted to shame her once again.