Judge Sets Dec. 5 Mediation Conference in Trump’s Defamation Suit vs. ABC News

U.S. District Judge Cecilia Altonaga for Southern Florida in Miami scheduled a virtual mediation conference for Dec. 5 at 10 a.m. in former President Donald Trump’s defamation lawsuit against ABC News and Sunday host George Stephanopoulos, said Altonaga’s signed order Tuesday (docket 1:24-cv-21050). The parties’ hand-picked mediator is Alan Fine, a retired judge from Florida’s 11th Judicial Circuit Court in Miami-Dade County, said the order. Trump sued March 18 over comments Stephanopoulos made during a broadcast about a jury verdict on sexual assault allegations brought against Trump by journalist E. Jean Carroll (see 2403190059). During a March 10 interview with Rep. Nancy Mace, R-S.C., on his Sunday ABC television show, Stephanopoulos repeatedly said that multiple juries found Trump liable for raping Carroll, said Trump’s complaint. In 2023, a federal jury found Trump liable for sexually assaulting Carroll but not liable for raping her. Trump has appealed that verdict. Altonaga previously set an April 2025 jury trial on Trump’s defamation allegations (see 2404100004).