Millionth Time Is The Charm: Donald Trump Again Sues A News Agency Over Factual Reporting
Open up the libel laws!" the man who can't win consecutive elections (much less a defamation lawsuit) once proclaimed. The Republican Party (or at least its voting bloc) appears willing to give a man who's enjoyed nothing but unearned opportunities throughout his professional and governmental career yet another shot in 2024. But he's not going to find similar support in the courts, which have rejected pretty much every suit the sorest loser in the world has filed over the course of his lifetime.
This latest effort will fare no better. As C.J. Ciaramella explains at Reason, it's highly unlikely any court will decide the line between defamation and mostly factual somehow runs right through the narrow definition of one state's legal definition of the word rape."
In acomplaintfiled yesterday in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida, Trump alleges that Stephanopoulos defamed him during a March 10 interview with Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.) in which the host repeatedly said that a jury found Trump liable for rape in the lawsuits brought against him by E. Jean Carroll.
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Trump's complaint is correct that, as a technical matter, he was found civilly liable for sexual assault under New York state law, not rape, because the jury did not find that he penetrated Carrol with his penis.
That's the argument Trump is making. He was defamed not because it was alleged he sexually assaulted someone. He was defamed because the sexual assault (allegations upheld by a jury that also awarded Carroll $5 million last year) wasn't legally rape" under New York law.
Trump's decision to push this argument shows he's incapable of learning from past mistakes. The judge presiding over Carroll's lawsuit already made it clear the sustained allegations described violations most people would describe as rape" even if they did not include penile penetration.
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," Kaplan wrote. Indeed, as the evidence at trial [...] makes clear, the jury found that Mr. Trump in fact did exactly that."
That is, the jury found it credible that Trump had penetrated Carroll's vagina without her consent, although it was more likely with his fingers (a method Trump espouses) than with his penis. Rape in common sense of the word, even if it wouldn't result in the specific criminal charge in the state of New York.
But Trump is as stubborn as he is stupid, and so he's filed another lawsuit [PDF] he's destined to lose. This one's filed in Florida, which is where Trump often prefers to do his judicial business. Choice of venue aside, this lawsuit has LOSER" written all over it. It opens with Trump reminding the court that he was once president of the United States and has built up enough steam to become the second coming of Grover Cleveland.
This boilerplate tho:
Plaintiff President Donald J. Trump (Plaintiff") is a private citizen of the United States, a resident of the state of Florida, the 45th President of the United States of America, and the leading candidate in the 2024 Presidential Election.
At least that means there won't be any arguments over whether or not Donald Trump is a public figure" for the purposes of this litigation. It's also unsurprising that Trump refers to himself as a private citizen" when filing lawsuits, but as president" when defending himself against lawsuits and/or criminal charges.
The self-aggrandizement is followed by several paragraphs of Trump trying to re-litigate the E. Jean Carroll case - one that has gone down in the history books as a Trump loss, and one that he continues to compound by his unwillingness to stop defaming (or stop suing!) the victor of the civil case.
At the heart of this case are the ten times George Stephanopoulos referred to Trump's sexual assault (under New York law!) as rape" while interviewing Congressperson Nancy Mace. That's it. That's the whole thing. It goes on for several more pages, but that's the entirety of the argument: that a jury found him liable for defamation and sexual assault, but not for the crime of rape" as described very particularly by the New York state statute.
That's not going to matter when this case gets underway. The standard is whether or not the statements are factual. Most people would consider forceful penetration of sexual orifices rape," no matter what was used. On top of that, Stephanopoulos was offering commentary and engaging in an interview of a Congressional Trump supporter. He was not directly reporting on the outcome of the Carroll case.
What it all comes down to is whether rape" is defamatory when it's used to describe something narrowly defined as sexual assault" by a single state's laws. And that's just not going to be enough to rack up a win for one of the nation's most inept serial litigants. Trump should just accept the fact that people believe he's a rapist, even if a jury did not explicitly arrive at the conclusion. His version isn't any better: all he's really arguing here is that he should only be referred to as someone found liable for sexual assault. Is that really so much better it's worth spending thousands or millions of dollars on?