Trump ignored advisers who said his latest lawsuit could backfire on him: report
Former President Donald Trump's new lawsuit against ABC News is not going to go anywhere — but it doesn't have to, argued Adam Rawnsley and Asawin Suebsaeng for Rolling Stone.
That's because his real goal is to bully and intimidate journalists against talking about his history of sexual assault, the report suggests.
The lawsuit targets reporter George Stephanopoulos, for stating in a recent interview with Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC) that Trump was “found liable for rape and defaming” writer E. Jean Carroll. The jury actually found him liable for sexual abuse — a distinction that Judge Lewis Kaplan emphasized wasn't meaningful in any real way, but which Trump is using as a basis to claim that Stephanopoulos defamed him.
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"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 Rolling Stone," said the report. "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[ing] them to court' — win or lose — is a good way to remind them of that, one of the people says."
"Trump, the sources recount, grew absolutely livid when he saw the Stephanopoulos interview, and began calling up advisers and demanding a suit from his vast gallery of personal attorneys," the report continued. "Some had advised the ex-president that a lawsuit could risk drawing more attention — including from voters in a crucial election year — to Carroll’s sexual-assault allegations, or possibly invite expensive sanctions from a court, the sources add. Trump, in conversations with close associates and MAGA-aligned lawyers, emphatically did not seem to care."
Trump separately plans to appeal the $83.3 million judgment he owes to Carroll, as well as the $464 million judgment for civil fraud secured by New York Attorney General Letitia James.