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Donald Trump sues ABC News for defamation over report citing rape case

  • ABC News host said Donald Trump was ‘liable for rape’ during an interview with a US congresswoman
  • George Stephanopoulos was referring to the rape case of E. Jean Carroll and the former US president

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Donald Trump and ABC News anchor George Stephanopoulos in 2020. File photo: AFP

Donald Trump has filed a defamation lawsuit against ABC News and television host George Stephanopoulos over comments the news anchor made on air involving the rape case brought against the former US president by writer E. Jean Carroll.

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Trump, a Republican, is already embroiled in multiple unrelated legal battles as he seeks to avoid going to trial on four criminal indictments before the November 5 US election, when he will try to unseat Democratic President Joe Biden.

The new lawsuit said the anchor of ABC’s Sunday news programme This Week With George Stephanopoulos “falsely stated on several occasions that plaintiff had been found liable by multiple juries for the rape of Ms E Jean Carroll”.

The lawsuit, filed on Monday in US District Court in Southern Florida, accuses Stephanopoulos, a former White House adviser under Bill Clinton’s presidency, of making the statements with malice and a disregard for the truth. It said the statements were distributed widely to third parties and repeated.

E. Jean Carroll. Photo: AP
E. Jean Carroll. Photo: AP

ABC News said it had no comment on the lawsuit.

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