In big news for former president and now-President-elect Donald Trump, ABC News and one of its top anchors, George Stephanopoulos, reached a settlement agreement with him regarding his defamation suit against them over claims made about him and supposed crimes that they alleged he committed. Under the terms of the settlement, they will pay him $15 million as a charitable contribution and apologize.
The settlement agreement was publically filed on Saturday, December 14. According to the terms, which mean the parties have managed to avoid a costly trial, ABC News will pay $15 million as a charitable contribution. It will be made 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.”
That’s not all. In addition to the $15 million charitable contribution, ABC will pay $1 million in Trump’s attorney fees. Further, both Stephanopoulos and ABC News have to issue a statement stating their “regret” at the bottom of an article published on March 10, 2024; the online article regards comments made by Stephanopoulos that prompted Trump’s suit against him and the network.
The regret note that ABC is now required to have attached to the online ABC article 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, commenting on the matter of its new settlement, said that it is “pleased” to have the matter wrapped up and dismissed now. Speaking to Fox News Digital, a spokesperson for ABC News said, “We are pleased that the parties have reached an agreement to dismiss the lawsuit on the terms in the court filing.”
The issue at hand involved a conversation that Stephanopoulos had with Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC), in which he claimed, falsely, that the president-elect was found “liable for rape” in a civil case brought by E. Jean Carroll. Stephanopoulos asked Rep. Mace, “How do you square your endorsement of Donald Trump with the testimony we just saw?”
Continuing, Stephanopoulos said, also as risky, “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.” In fact, Stephanopoulos made that “liable for rape” claim ten times during his contentious interview with Mace, which was very false; a jury actually determined Trump was liable for “sexual abuse,” a different legal status.
Adding to the difficult nature of Trump’s lawsuit, and thus the good news that the settlement is, was that Judge Lewis Kaplan wrote that though 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.’”
Stephanopoulos, using that comment to defend himself and allege that Trump was acting ridiculously, “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.” He added that he wouldn’t be “cowed out of doing my job because of a threat.”
Watch the incident with Mace here:
President Trump is suing George Stephanopoulos for defaming him and saying he was found liable for rape here in this shameful interview with Nancy Mace. 🔥🔥🔥pic.twitter.com/ANon5X5qoI
— JKash 🍊MAGA Queen (@JKash000) March 19, 2024
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