Illinois
Roger Stone urges Trump to sue Illinois governor for calling him a “rapist”
What’s New
President-elect Donald Trump has been urged by former adviser Roger Stone follow up on his settled defamation lawsuit against ABC News by suing Democratic Illinois Governor JB Pritzker for calling him a “rapist.”
“I certainly hope the president will file this lawsuit and based on the precedent set by his lawsuit against ABC, I believe that he would get a judgment against JB Pritzker,” Stone said in a text message to Newsweek on Wednesday.
Newsweek reached out for comment to the offices of Trump and Pritzker via email on Wednesday.
Why It Matters
ABC News recently agreed to apologize and pay $15 million toward Trump’s future presidential library to settle a defamation lawsuit against the network and anchor George Stephanopoulos for incorrectly saying on air that a jury found Trump civilly liable for rape.
A jury found Trump civilly liable last year for sexually abusing former Elle columnist E. Jean Carroll in the 1990s and defaming her by denying that an assault took place, although the judge presiding over the trial later said that Trump’s actions met “the meaning of ‘rape’ in common modern parlance.”
Former Trump adviser Roger Stone is pictured on the left, while Illinois Governor JB Pritzker is shown on the right. President-elect Donald Trump is featured in the inset image. Stone on Wednesday urged Trump to sue Pritzker for referring to him as an “adjudicated rapist.”
NICK OXFORD/AFP; Oleg Nikishin; Craig Barritt/Getty Images for Clinton Global Initiative
What To Know
While sharing an article on former Democratic Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich calling for Trump to sue Pritzker, Stone wrote the following on X, formerly Twitter, earlier on Wednesday: “President Trump should sue billionaire Governor JD [sic] Pritzker who falsely called him a rapist.”
Pritzker referred to Trump as an “adjudicated rapist” on multiple occasions while acting as a surrogate for the Democratic presidential campaigns of President Joe Biden and later Vice President Kamala Harris over the summer.
“Donald Trump is a convicted felon, an adjudicated rapist and a congenital liar,” Pritzker said during a speech in June. “He’s a racist, sexist, misogynistic narcissist who wants to use the levers of power to enrich himself and punish anyone who dares speak a word against him.”
What People Are Saying
Blagojevich—an outspoken Trump supporter since being granted clemency by the then-president in 2020 after serving several years in federal prison on corruption charges—called for Trump to follow up his ABC suit by taking similar legal action against Pritzker in a post to X on Monday.
“Now that Trump successfully won his defamation case against ABC for calling him a ‘rapist,’ when will he sue Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker for repeatedly lying & calling him the same thing?” Blagojevich wrote.
What Happens Next
While it is unclear whether Trump intends to file a lawsuit against Pritzker, the former and future president has seemingly started a legal revenge campaign against critics and perceived political enemies before his inauguration on January 20.
Trump filed a lawsuit on Monday against retired pollster J. Ann Selzer, the Des Moines Register and its parent company Gannett for what he alleges was “brazen election interference” for publishing a poll that showed Harris with a narrow lead in The Hawkeye State shortly before the election.