Trump sues ABC News after George Stephanopoulos refers to sexual assault of E Jean Carroll as ‘rape’

Trump accuses ABC and Stephanopoulos of acting ‘with actual malice or with reckless disregard for truth’

Donald Trump has filed a defamation lawsuit against ABC News and George Stephanopoulos over an interview in which the host referred to the sexual assault of E Jean Carroll as “rape”.

In a 10 March interview on “This Week”, Stephanopoulos repeatedly asked congresswoman Nancy Mace, a rape survivor, why she supports the former US president even after a jury “found him liable for rape”.

A jury in New York in May last year found Donald Trump liable for the sexual abuse of Ms Carroll and awarded her $2m (£1.6m). The jury, however, didn’t find Mr Trump liable for raping Ms Carroll.

A jury in January also determined that Mr Trump must pay Ms Carroll more than $83m (£65m) in damages for defamatory statements.

Ms Mace argued that she was being “shamed” for her “political choices” as a rape survivor herself.

Mr Trump accused Stephanopoulos of acting "with actual malice or with a reckless disregard for the truth” in a filing in federal court in the Southern District of Florida.

The lawsuit said that Stephanopoulos "knows that these statements are patently and demonstrably false".

Mr Trump had called Ms Carroll a “hoax” and a “con job” while denying allegations of sexual abuse.

In Ms Carroll’s case against Mr Trump, which stemmed from an encounter at a Manhattan luxury department store, the judge later said that the jury’s decision was based on “the narrow, technical meaning” of rape in New York penal law and that, in his analysis, the verdict did not mean that Carroll “failed to prove that Mr. Trump ‘raped’ her as many people commonly understand the word ‘rape.’”

“Indeed, as the evidence at trial recounted below makes clear, the jury found that Mr Trump in fact did exactly that,” US district judge Lewis Kaplan wrote.

Mr Trump, who is facing a number of lawsuits, has frequently rallied his supporters by criticising the media. He has filed a string of defamation suits against major media organisations, including CNN, the New York Times and the Washington Post. But his attempts have been dismissed in courts.

Mr Trump filed a lawsuit against the NYT over its investigation of his finances, allegations that resulted in a recent ruling by a New York civil court holding him liable for $454m. The lawsuit was dismissed in March and Mr Trump ended up reimbursing the legal cost to the newspaper.