The incident cost his network $15 million, because in the real world, a jury did not find that the now-president was guilty of that abhorrent crime. In other words, Stephanopoulos was culpable of yet another incident of “fake news” emanating from our nation’s corrupt mainstream press.

But AOC might not be keeping up with current events, because she just made the same charge on social media and, according to many observers, opened herself up to potential serious legal consequences:

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) was ripped on social media after she called President Trump “a rapist” online — with many suggesting a tweet from the Congresswoman was grounds for a defamation lawsuit from the commander in chief.

Ocasio-Cortez sparked outrage when she tweeted Friday about Trump and the release of files related to notorious pedophile Jeffrey Epstein.

“Wow who would have thought that electing a rapist would have complicated the release of the Epstein Files?” Ocasio-Cortez wrote on X, apparently referring to Trump and the 2023 civil trial where he was found liable of sexually abusing writer E. Jean Carroll.

This little nugget might end up being extremely costly:

Wow who would have thought that electing a rapist would have complicated the release of the Epstein Files?

— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) July 11, 2025

Utah Gop Sen. Mike Lee posted that you can’t just throw out your wildest ideas if they are totally divorced from reality:

Even under the ridiculously lenient standards of NY Times v. Sullivan, you’ve managed to incur defamation liability

Wow https://t.co/i5lXbo5K0o

— Mike Lee (@BasedMikeLee) July 12, 2025

This is a concept that Stephanopoulos found out the hard way, much to his everlasting shame and chagrin:

Stephanopoulos and ABC were sued by Trump last year after the “This Week” host similarly asserted that Trump had been “found liable for rape,” during an interview with Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC). 

In December, ABC and Stephanopoulos agreed to pay Trump’s presidential library foundation $15 million and an additional $1 million in legal expenses as part of a settlement, and the network publicly apologized for the error. 

Oops.