, by judges and two juries. As a factual matter, a jury found Trump defamed and sexually abused Carroll — and he was ordered to payfor defaming her again. Trump’s lawsuit claims Stephanopoulos’ comments were “false, intentional, malicious and designed to cause harm.”
Behind closed doors, the presumptive 2024 Republican presidential nominee has told confidants and lawyers that a primary purpose of the suit is to make an example of Stephanopoulos, two people with direct knowledge of the matter tell. In recent days, Trump has privately said that “everyone” in the media should think twice about calling him a “rapist” on TV and in print, and that “tak them to court” — win or lose — is a good way to remind them of that, one of the people says.
“‘It’s not about the money,’ was the impression that I got,” says the other source, who discussed the situation with the ex-president. “This is about not fucking around with Donald Trump.” During a combative interview with Rep. Nancy Mace on Sunday, Stephanopoulos pressed Mace to answer how she could support a candidate who the ABC News host claimed had been “found liable for rape,” in a reference to the Carroll lawsuit. In May 2023, a federal jury found Trump liable for defamation and sexual abuse, but not rape, for assaulting Carroll in 1996 in a Bergdorff Goodman dressing room.