TRUMPED

Trump’s ABC Settlement Forces Stephanopoulos to Bend the Knee and Apologize

The $15 million settlement follows several unsuccessful Trump lawsuits against “fake news” media outlets.

ABC News has agreed to shell out $15 million to Donald Trump’s future presidential foundation and museum, settling a defamation lawsuit filed by the president elect this spring involving on-air comments made by George Stephanopoulos. The network, which is owned by the Walt Disney Company, will also pay Trump an additional $1 million for legal fees.

ABC News’ and Stephanopoulos’ legal woes stemmed from one moment during a March interview in which the anchor asked Rep. Nancy Mace why she continued to support Trump after he was found liable for “rape” in a Manhattan civil case last year. The South Carolina Republican had, in the past, spoken publicly about being raped as a teenager.

The president-elect, however, was not found liable for rape. Rather, a federal jury found Trump liable for sexually abusing and defaming the writer E. Jean Carroll. Following the trial, the judge who oversaw suit clarified that, due to New York’s narrow legal definition of rape, the jury’s verdict did not necessarily mean that Carroll had “failed to prove” Trump “raped” her in the common understanding of the word.

Trump ultimately sued ABC News, accusing Stephanopoulos of damaging his reputation by repeatedly claiming on-air that he had been found liable for raping Carroll.

According to the settlement agreement filed on Saturday in Federal District Court in Miami, ABC News and Stephanopoulos vowed to attach an editor’s note saying they “regret” the star anchor’s remarks about Trump to the interview’s corresponding online article.

“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,” the addendum reads.

A spokesperson for the network said they were “pleased” that the two parties had found a way to dismiss the lawsuit.

The ABC News settlement is a victory for Trump in his ongoing campaign against outlets he claims are “fake news,” after several previous attempts to sue more media outlets for defamation, including CNN, The New York Times, and The Washington Post, were unsuccessful.

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