Hartmann Report -Donald Trump took the first step to extinguishing the free and independent press in American yesterday, when federal judge and Bush-appointee Cecilia Altonaga ruled that his defamation lawsuit against George Stephanopoulos and ABC News could go forward. She ruled that “a reasonable jury could conclude Plaintiff was defamed and, as a result, dismissal is inappropriate.” (emphasis hers)
Stephanopoulos had asked Republican Representative Nancy Mace how she could continue to support Trump when he had been “found liable for rape.” Trump is claiming that question libeled him and asking for damages that could run into the tens or even hundreds of millions of dollars. You’d think he doesn’t have a case. When a jury of his peers found in favor of E. Jean Caroll in her defamation case against Trump, Judge Lewis Kaplan noted:
“[T]he jury’s finding that Mr. Trump ‘sexually abused’ Ms Carroll implicitly determined that he forcibly penetrated her digitally – in other words, that Mr Trump in fact did ‘rape’ Ms Carroll as that term commonly is used and understood in contexts outside of the New York penal law.”
Nonetheless, Judge Altonaga is letting Trump’s lawsuit against the reporter and news organization go forward. This is a very, very big deal that could signal the beginning of the end for a free and open press in America.
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