ABC News and its lead anchor George Stephanopoulos have reached a settlement with Donald Trump in his defamation lawsuit, resulting in the news network agreeing to pay the president-elect $15 million. The settlement, filed publicly on Saturday, shows that both parties have reached an agreement and avoided a lengthy and expensive trial.
According to the settlement, ABC News will pay $15 million as a charitable contribution to a “Presidential foundation and museum to be established by or for Plaintiff, as Presidents of the United States of America have established in the past.” Additionally, the network will pay $1 million in Trump’s attorney fees.
Stephanopoulos and ABC News issued statements of “regret” in an editor’s note at the bottom of a March 10, 2024, online article regarding comments made earlier this year, which prompted Trump to file a defamation lawsuit. The note reads, “ABC News and George Stephanopoulos regret statements regarding President Donald J. Trump made during an interview by George Stephanopoulos with Rep. Nancy Mace on ABC’s This Week on March 10, 2024.” ABC News said the network was “pleased” to have concluded the case.
“We are pleased that the parties have reached an agreement to dismiss the lawsuit on the terms in the court filing,” an ABC News spokesperson told Fox News Digital. Trump filed a defamation lawsuit against Stephanopoulos after he claimed that Trump was found “liable for rape” in a civil case during a contentious interview with Rep. Nancy Mace, R-S.C., last March. After playing a clip of Mace discussing being a victim of rape, Stephanopoulos asked her, “How do you square your endorsement of Donald Trump with the testimony we just saw?”
“You’ve endorsed Donald Trump for president. Judges and two separate juries have found him liable for rape and for defaming the victim of that rape,” Stephanopoulos said, alluding to the legal victory by Trump accuser E. Jean Carroll. Stephanopoulos reiterated that claim ten times during his exchange with Mace, despite the fact that a jury had found Trump liable for “sexual abuse,” a term with a specific legal definition under New York law.
After a federal jury found Trump liable for sexual abuse, but not the crime of rape, U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan wrote in a later ruling that just because Carroll failed to prove rape “within the meaning of the New York Penal Law does not mean that she failed to prove that Mr. Trump ‘raped’ her as many people commonly understand the word ‘rape.’”
At first, Stephanopoulos shrugged off the lawsuit, telling CBS late-night host Stephen Colbert that he wouldn’t be “cowed out of doing my job because of a threat.” He added: “Trump sued me because I used the word ‘rape,’ even though a judge said that’s in fact what did happen. We filed a motion to dismiss.”
The settlement was reached after U.S. Magistrate Judge Lisette M. Reid ordered Trump and Stephanopoulos to sit for depositions next week, ahead of the December 24 deadline for the defendants to file a motion for summary judgment, in an effort to avoid a trial.
In his legal action against Stephanopoulos and ABC, Trump was represented by Florida lawyers Alejandro Brito and Richard Klugh. They also represent the president-elect in his lawsuit against CNN. The settlement with ABC was submitted to the Southern District of Florida Federal Court, where both sides signed and consented to the terms.
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