ABC News and their top anchor George Stephanopoulos have reached a settlement Donald Trump in his defamation lawsuit, which will result in the news network paying the president-elect $15 million.
The settlement was publicly filed on Saturday, showing that the two sides reached an agreement and avoided a costly lawsuit. Under 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, such as Presidents of the United States of America have established in the past.” In addition, the network will pay $1 million in Trump’s attorney fees.
Stephanopoulos and ABC News will issue statements of “regret” as an editor’s note at the bottom of a March 10, 2024, online article about comments made earlier this year that prompted Trump to file a defamation lawsuit.
“ABC News and George Stephanopoulos regret statements about President Donald J. Trump made during an interview by George Stephanopoulos with Representative Nancy Mace on ABC’s This Week on March 10, 2024,” the statement read.
Trump has filed a defamation suit against Stephanopoulos after claiming that Trump was “found liable for rape” in a civil case during a controversial interview with Rep. Nancy Mace, R-S.C., last March.
After playing a clip of Mace discussing being a rape victim, Stephanopoulos asked her, “How do you reconcile your support for Donald Trump with the testimony we just saw?”
“You supported 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, referring to the legal victory of Trump accuser E. Jean Carroll.
Stephanopoulos repeated that claim 10 times during his feud with Mace, despite the fact that a jury had actually found Trump liable for “sexual abuse,” which has a separate definition under New York law.
After the federal jury found Trump liable for sexual abuse but not rape, Judge Lewis Kaplan wrote in a later ruling that Carroll’s failure to prove rape “as defined by New York criminal law does not mean that she failed to prove that Mr. Trump ‘raped’ her, as many people commonly understand the word ‘rape’.”
President-elect Trump and ABC News host George Stephanopoulos reached a settlement out of court this week after Trump sued his network’s host for defamation. (Getty Images)
Initially Stephanopoulos was challenging in light of Trump’s lawsuit, telling CBS host Stephen Colbert that he “would not be deterred from doing my job because of a threat”
“Trump sued me for using the word ‘rape’ even though a judge said it actually happened. We have filed a request for dismissal,” Stephanopoulos said.
The settlement came recently after U.S. Magistrate Judge Lisette M. Reid Trump ordered and Stephanopoulos will attend an in-person hearing next week ahead of the December 24 deadline for the defendants to file a motion for summary judgment, to avoid a trial.
In his lawsuit against Stephanopoulos and ABC, Trump was represented by Florida attorneys Alejandro Brito and Richard Klugh, who are also representing the president-elect in his lawsuit against CNN. The settlement with ABC was filed in federal court for the Southern District of Florida, where both parties signed and agreed to the terms.
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The settlement comes after a series of legal victories for Trump and his legal team, coordinated by senior legal advisor Boris Epshteyn.
Federal Judge Tanya Chutkan recently granted Special Counsel Jack Smith’s recent request to dismiss his case against Trump in connection with the 2020 election. Smith also dismissed his appeal in the classified documents case on Monday after a federal judge in July dismissed the charges entirely, ruling that he had been unlawfully appointed as a special prosecutor.
In New York v. Trump, Judge Juan Merchan granted Trump’s request to file a motion to dismiss the charges arising from Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s case and removed the sentencing date for the elected president from the schedule.
Trump is also suing CBS News for $10 billion in damages, alleging in his October interview with Vice President Kamala Harris that the network engaged in “deceptive conduct” for the purpose of election interference.
Fox News’ Brian Flood and Alexander Hall contributed to this report.
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