ABC News has agreed to pay $15 million toward Donald Trump’s presidential library to settle a defamation lawsuit over anchor George Stephanopoulos' inaccurate on-air assertion that the president-elect had been found civilly liable for raping writer E.
There was no defamation by Stephanopoulos. The problem is the legal definition of “rape” in the state of New York.
Did Stephanopoulos specifically state he committed the crime of rape as defined in the state of New York, or did he just say he raped her with no added context? Seems like you should be able to use the colloquial definition should be fine to use in a news bulletin.
Fortunately, the legal definition of “rape” has been recently updated in New York, probably as a direct result of the Carroll case.