More bullshit from a turd...

Trump laments $464M judgment, sues ABC News and George Stephanopoulos for defamation

Trump’s rants over his legal issues in New York come after he sued ABC News and George Stephanopoulos for defamation over a March 10 airing of “This Week.”

By ANDREW HOWARD

Donald Trump on Tuesday posted a string of complaints lamenting the “practically impossible” $464 million he is unable to obtain a bond for in the civil fraud judgment against him, the day after hitting ABC News and George Stephanopoulos with a defamation lawsuit for an undisclosed sum.

The former president’s lawyers said in a Monday court filing that “ongoing diligent efforts have proven that a bond in the judgment’s full amount is a ‘practical impossibility,’” including “approaching about 30 surety companies through 4 separate brokers.” Trump’s inability to pay raises the possibility that the state attorney general’s office could begin to seize his assets unless the court agrees to halt the judgment while the former president appeals the verdict.

On Tuesday morning, Trump called the civil fraud case “legal warfare” and “election interference” in a series of Truth Social posts.

“Judge Engoron actually wants me to put up Hundreds of Millions of Dollars for the Right to Appeal his ridiculous decision,” Trump wrote. “ … I would be forced to mortgage or sell Great Assets, perhaps at Fire Sale prices, and if and when I win the Appeal, they would be gone. Does that make sense? WITCH HUNT. ELECTION INTERFERENCE!”

Trump’s assertion that he needs to post hundreds of millions of dollars “for the right to appeal” is wrong. He can appeal the judgment without posting any money — and indeed, he already has begun the appeals process.

But securing a third-party bond to guarantee the amount of the judgment (or posting the full amount in cash into a court escrow account) would stave off any collection efforts while the appeal proceeds. Trump’s deadline for doing so is March 25, unless the appeals court agrees to either stop the judgment or allow him to post a bond for a smaller amount.

Trump’s rants over his legal issues in New York come after he sued ABC News and Stephanopoulos for defamation Monday over a March 10 airing of “This Week.” The anchor said on air that Trump had been found liable for raping writer E. Jean Carroll during a heated interview with Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.).

“Judges and two separate juries have found him liable for rape and for defaming the victim of that rape. How do you square your endorsement of Donald Trump with the testimony we just saw?” Stephanopoulos asked Mace, who is a survivor of rape. Mace accused Stephanopoulos of shaming her over her support for Trump and called it “disgusting.”

In a statement Tuesday, Mace called for Republicans to stop appearing on ABC News until disciplinary action was taken.

“Actions like this are the reason Americans have lost trust in the press,” Mace said. “ABC leadership should hold George Stephanopoulos accountable immediately for intentionally lying about Donald Trump during our interview — or pay a steep price for his actions. “

ABC News had no comment.

In May 2023, a federal jury found Trump liable in a civil lawsuit for sexual abuse of Carroll but not for rape. In a later ruling, Judge Lewis Kaplan wrote that even though Carroll did not prove Trump raped her “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.’”

“Indeed, as the evidence at trial recounted below makes clear, the jury found that Mr. Trump in fact did exactly that,” wrote Kaplan, who oversaw both of Trump’s lawsuits with Carroll.

In the defamation lawsuit, Trump’s lawyers argue that when Stephanopoulos said during his questioning of Mace that Trump was found liable for rape, he was acting with “actual malice or with a reckless disregard for the truth.”

The case was filed in Miami and did not specify the amount of money Trump was seeking.