Democratic Lawmaker Brands Trump ‘Adjudicated Rapist’ — Corrected Live on Air for the 8th Time
On May 30, 2026, Rep. Melanie Stansbury (D-NM) appeared on MSNBC’s MS NOW and called Donald Trump an “adjudicated rapist.” Host Alex Wittinterrupted her immediately: “I just want to be careful because President Trump was not accused of rape, per se — he was accused of sexual abuse.” Stansbury did not dispute the correction.
The correction is not a matter of opinion. The May 2023 Carroll II jury verdict form explicitly checked “NOT RAPE” under New York Penal Law while simultaneously finding Trump civilly liable for sexual abuse (battery) and ordering him to pay $83.3 millionin combined damages. The word “adjudicated” compounds the error: Carroll II was a civil verdict under the preponderance-of-evidence standard, not a criminal adjudication beyond a reasonable doubt. Trump was never criminally charged in connection with Carroll.
This is at minimum the eighth documented on-air correction of the same claim since December 2024, when ABC News agreed to pay $15 millionto Trump’s presidential library and issue a statement of regret to settle a defamation suit stemming from anchor George Stephanopoulos’s repeated on-air use of “liable for rape.” The settlement is the financial proof that the phrase is legally wrong and legally actionable. The corrections keep coming anyway.
- $15MABC settlementABC News paid $15 million to Trump's presidential library and issued a statement of regret (December 2024) to settle defamation suit over George Stephanopoulos calling Trump 'liable for rape'— PBS NewsHour, December 2024
- NOT RAPEjury's written findingCarroll II verdict form (May 2023) explicitly checked 'NOT RAPE' under New York Penal Law while finding Trump civilly liable for sexual abuse (battery) — $83.3M total damages— Carroll v. Trump case record; Newsweek fact check
- 8+documented on-air correctionsLi/Vossoughian (2023) · Etienne/Wallace x2 (Summer 2024) · Galloway/Brzezinski (Jan. 8, 2025) · Stansbury/Witt (May 30, 2026) — all same factual error, all corrected live— Mediaite; Fox News; multiple contemporaneous reports
- Civilnot criminal'Adjudicated' implies criminal determination; Carroll II was a civil verdict under preponderance-of-evidence standard. Trump was never criminally charged in connection with Carroll.— Carroll v. Trump case record; NY Penal Law §130
The Carroll II verdict (May 9, 2023, S.D.N.Y., Judge Lewis A. Kaplan) is the primary record. The jury returned a nine-question special verdict form. On the question of whether Trump committed rape as defined by New York Penal Law at the time of the alleged 1996 incident, the jury checked “NO.” On the question of whether Trump committed sexual abuse as defined by New York Penal Law, the jury checked “YES.”
Under New York Penal Law as it stood at the time of the alleged incident, “rape” required forcible vaginal penetration by a penis. Carroll’s allegation involved digital penetration (with fingers).
That conduct met the statute’s definition of “sexual abuse” — what courts classify as battery — and the jury found Trump civilly liable for it.
Judge Kaplan subsequently wrote that the evidence “convincingly established” that Trump “deliberately and forcibly penetrated Ms. Carroll’s vagina with his fingers” — conduct that meets the common-language definition of rape but not the legal finding the jury returned under the statute in force.
The distinction is not a technicality invented by Trump’s lawyers. It is written on the verdict form. It is the reason that calling Trump “a rapist” — or “adjudicated rapist” — is legally inaccurate and has already cost one media organization $15 million to resolve.
The Second Circuit Court of Appeals declined en banc review of Trump’s appeal, per Courthouse News Service, leaving the Carroll II verdict and the $83.3 million judgmentintact as of 2025. The civil verdict does not establish a criminal record. The standard of proof in a civil case is preponderance of the evidence — more likely than not. A criminal conviction requires proof beyond a reasonable doubt. Rep. Stansbury used the word “adjudicated,” which in American legal usage refers to a formal judicial determination — typically criminal. Carroll II produced neither a criminal adjudication nor a rape verdict.
The Carroll II jury verdict form explicitly checked 'NOT RAPE' under New York Penal Law while finding Trump civilly liable for 'sexual abuse' (battery). The distinction is the legal record. (Carroll v. Trump, S.D.N.Y., May 9, 2023)
In December 2024, ABC News agreed to pay $15 millionto Trump’s presidential library and issue a statement of regret. The trigger was anchor George Stephanopoulos’s on-air statements that Trump had been found “liable for rape” — the same phrase, in different words, that Rep. Stansbury used eighteen months later. Trump sued for defamation. ABC settled. The settlement is not an admission of liability, but the $15 million figure and the statement of regret are the financial record of what happens when a media organization repeats the inaccuracy.
“I just want to be careful because President Trump was not accused of rape, per se — he was accused of sexual abuse.”
Alex Witt · MSNBC MS NOW host · correcting Rep. Melanie Stansbury (D-NM) · May 30, 2026 · per Mediaite
The legal distinction is not arcane. It is the explicit finding of a federal civil jury. MSNBC host Alex Witt knew it well enough to correct a sitting U.S. congresswoman within seconds of the claim leaving her mouth. That Stansbury — an elected federal legislator, NM-1 (Albuquerque), and former Obama White House Fellow — repeated the inaccuracy in a national television broadcast in May 2026 suggests either that Democratic figures have not received the memo or that they have received it and declined to follow it.
George Stephanopoulos's on-air use of 'liable for rape' triggered a $15 million ABC settlement (December 2024) and a statement of regret — the financial proof that the phrase is legally actionable.
77 year old unanimously adjudicated rapist perjurer Donald Trump now owes E. Jean Carroll $83.3 million...
The Stansbury/Witt exchange is not an isolated slip. It is the latest entry in a documented pattern of Democratic guests, elected officials, and media commentators stating that Trump was found “liable for rape” or was an “adjudicated rapist,” followed by immediate on-air correction from the host. In every documented case, the correction is the same: the jury found Trump liable for sexual abuse, not rape. In every documented case, the guest either nods and moves on or ignores the correction entirely.
1. Lindy Li / Yasmin Vossoughian — MSNBC (2023): Li (DNC Women’s Co-Chair) called Trump a “serial rapist” on MSNBC. Vossoughian visibly stunned, immediately corrected. (Fox News)
2–3. Ashley Etienne / Nicolle Wallace — MSNBC (Summer 2024): Etienne said “convicted rapist” twice. Wallace corrected both times: “He’s not a convicted rapist; he was found liable for sexual abuse.” (multiple contemporaneous reports)
4. Scott Galloway / Mika Brzezinski — Morning Joe (January 8, 2025): NYU Stern professor Galloway called Trump “an insurrectionist and a rapist.” Brzezinski immediately interrupted with the Carroll II correction. (Mediaite)
5+. Lawrence O’Donnell — X (January 2024): O’Donnell posted “adjudicated rapist perjurer” on X in connection with the Carroll damages verdict — the same word Stansbury used sixteen months later. (X post, January 26, 2024)
Latest — Rep. Melanie Stansbury (D-NM) / Alex Witt — MS NOW (May 30, 2026): “adjudicated rapist” → Witt: “I just want to be careful because President Trump was not accused of rape, per se — he was accused of sexual abuse.” (Mediaite)
Eight-plus documented on-air corrections of the same claim since 2023. The correction is always the same: 'sexual abuse, not rape — that is what the jury found.' The claim keeps being made anyway.
Rosie O'Donnell may have handed Trump a golden opportunity for a defamation action
While Democratic officials continue to describe Trump as an “adjudicated rapist,” the Department of Justice has opened a criminal probe into E. Jean Carroll herself, per NBC News. The investigation focuses on alleged perjury in connection with Carroll’s testimony. A separate element concerns the funding of Carroll’s litigation: Reid Hoffman, the LinkedIn co-founder and Democratic megadonor, provided financial backing to Carroll’s legal effort — funding that was not disclosed during the litigation and that Carroll’s legal team later acknowledged.
The probe does not change the Carroll II verdict, which was affirmed by the Second Circuit. But it does change the political context in which Democratic figures are continuing to invoke that verdict in its maximally distorted form — “adjudicated rapist” — rather than the accurate one: Trump was found civilly liable for sexual abuse.
Rep. Melanie Stansbury (D-NM) represents New Mexico’s 1st Congressional District — Albuquerque and surrounding Bernalillo County. She won a May 2021 special election to fill the seat vacated when Deb Haaland was confirmed as Interior Secretary, then won full terms in 2022 and 2024. Before Congress she served as a research director for the New Mexico Legislature and as a White House Fellow under the Obama administration. She sits on the House Natural Resources Committee and the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform.
Rep. Melanie Stansbury (D-NM-1):Made the “adjudicated rapist” claim on MS NOW, May 30, 2026. Former Obama White House Fellow. Albuquerque / Bernalillo County.
Alex Witt: MSNBC MS NOW host. Issued the on-air correction within seconds. Per Mediaite, corrected Stansbury immediately.
George Stephanopoulos:ABC anchor whose use of “liable for rape” led to the $15 million December 2024 settlement. ABC issued a statement of regret as part of the resolution.
Judge Lewis A. Kaplan (S.D.N.Y.):Presided over Carroll II. Wrote in a subsequent opinion that the evidence “convincingly established” Trump’s conduct met the common-language definition of rape while acknowledging the verdict form returned “NOT RAPE” under NY statute.
Scott Galloway:NYU Stern professor; called Trump “a rapist” on Morning Joe January 8, 2025. Corrected by Mika Brzezinski immediately. (Mediaite)
Lindy Li (DNC Women’s Co-Chair):Called Trump “serial rapist” on MSNBC in 2023. Vossoughian stunned, corrected live. (Fox News)
Reid Hoffman:LinkedIn co-founder and Democratic megadonor; concealed funding of Carroll’s litigation. DOJ criminal probe into Carroll includes undisclosed Hoffman funding as an element. (NBC News)
I HAVE ABSOLUTELY NO IDEA WHO THIS WOMAN IS. THIS VERDICT IS A DISGRACE — A CONTINUATION OF THE GREATEST WITCH HUNT OF ALL TIME!
Trump's documented Truth Social response to the Carroll II verdict. He lost the civil case; the jury awarded $83.3 million in combined damages. The Second Circuit affirmed the verdict in 2025.
Constitutional law professor Jonathan Turleyhas argued, in a November 2025 piece on his widely-read legal blog, that Democratic figures calling Trump “a rapist” may be handing Trump further defamation opportunities. The ABC settlement established a precedent: the phrase “liable for rape,” when applied to Trump following Carroll II, is legally inaccurate and has been treated as actionable by a major defendant willing to write a nine-figure check to resolve it. “Adjudicated rapist” — Stansbury’s formulation — doubles the inaccuracy: it adds a false criminal connotation on top of the false rape finding.
The correction Alex Witt issued on MSNBC is not opinion. It is the verbatim position of the jury that heard the evidence, deliberated under Judge Kaplan’s instructions, and returned a written verdict form. It is the position of every legal analyst who has reviewed the record. It is the position that cost ABC $15 million to fail to maintain. That a sitting U.S. congresswoman, in the year 2026, would still call Trump an “adjudicated rapist” on national television — nineteen months after the settlement and thirty-seven months after the verdict — is not an accident. It is a choice.
“He's not a convicted rapist; he was found liable for sexual abuse.”
Nicolle Wallace · MSNBC host · correcting Democratic strategist Ashley Etienne who said 'convicted rapist' twice · Summer 2024
The Carroll II jury checked “NOT RAPE” on the verdict form. ABC paid $15 million for saying otherwise. A sitting U.S. congresswoman said “adjudicated rapist” on MSNBC in May 2026, and the host corrected her within seconds. The correction has now been issued at least eight times by journalists who know the record. The claim keeps being made anyway by Democratic officials who either do not know the facts of the case that they keep invoking — or do not care.
