Donald Trump Agrees to New Trial Date in Defamation Case
The civil trial for Donald Trump 's defamation lawsuit against ABC and host George Stephanopoulos could be pushed back, as both parties request delays in the proceedings.
In court filings submitted on Tuesday, legal teams for the president-elect and the defendants sought an extension for all trial deadlines previously set in the case, including moving the start of the jury trial from April 7 , 2025, to June 9.
One of the lawyers for ABC and Stephanopoulos is requesting that the civil trial be moved so he can travel to Israel during the Jewish holiday of Passover next April. Another member of the defense's counsel is scheduled to attend a separate trial in Georgia the same month. Both parties are also seeking an extension to the discovery litigation process after agreeing to "diligently" continue conducting this work.
While many of Trump's legal issues appear to be winding down after he won the 2024 election, this civil case is likely to proceed as the president-elect is the plaintiff. The new proposed deadline would still mean Trump could be involved in a legal proceeding during his first year in office.
Trump is suing ABC, ABC News and Stephanopoulos after the anchor said in a March 2024 interview with South Carolina Republican Representative Nancy Mace that a jury found the president-elect liable for raping former Elle columnist E. Jean Carroll in the 1990s. In May 2023, a civil jury in New York found Trump liable for sexually abusing Carroll and then defaming her character while denying the assault took place, but not of raping her.
ABC News and Stephanopoulos previously called for the lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida, to be dismissed, arguing that the host's remarks were "substantially true" while citing the civil trial judge's comments.
Judge Lewis Kaplan, who oversaw the civil trial in New York, has twice declared Trump's actions amounted to rape under a broader definition established in other states.
"The definition of rape in the New York Penal Law is far narrower than the meaning of 'rape' in common modern parlance, its definition in some dictionaries, in some federal and state criminal statutes, and elsewhere," Kaplan wrote in July 2023.
"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.' Indeed, as the evidence at trial recounted makes clear, the jury found that Mr. Trump in fact did exactly that."
Newsweek has contacted the legal teams for Trump and ABC for comment via email.
Tuesday's filings said lead counsel Nathan Siegel would like to travel to Israel with his family to celebrate Passover because his son will be attending a student program there next semester.
Undersigned counsel Elizabeth McNamara has another trial set for April 22 in the Southern District of Georgia, which is expected to last three weeks.
"Under the proposed schedule, pre-trial deadlines would largely expire shortly before Passover begins, and trial deadlines would commence approximately six weeks after the holiday ends," the filings state.
Both parties previously stated that depositions should take place as soon as practicable after Election Day due to the "unique challenges" of doing so in the lead-up to November 5.
"However, the parties also agreed that rather than seek to temporarily stay or administratively close the case entirely, they would endeavor to advance the case by conducting any discovery they mutually agreed would be practical to accomplish," the filings add.
"Thus, the parties have been proceeding diligently, including exchanging requests for and certain responses to document production and interrogatories, initial disclosures, serving certain third-party subpoenas, and where possible scheduling some tentative dates for depositions post-election."
Both parties believe there is good cause to extend the pretrial deadlines to ensure that any actions can be fully litigated, and that such an extension would not impede the progress of the case.
The federal January 6 and classified documents investigations into Trump appear set to be wound down by special counsel Jack Smith 's team, as the Department of Justice has a policy not to prosecute sitting presidents. It has also been reported that Smith intends to step down with his team before Trump assumes office in January.
The sprawling 2020 Georgia election trial involving Trump and several of his allies is also unlikely to proceed while the Republican is in office, if at all.
On Tuesday, New York Judge Juan Merchan postponed a decision on whether Trump's falsifying business records conviction can be thrown out following the Supreme Court 's immunity decision until November 19.
Trump is currently scheduled to be sentenced on November 26 after being found guilty of 34 felony charges in his hush money trial.
Trump denied all the charges against him across the four state and federal cases, and of defaming Carroll.
