Court documents filed yesterday reveal that ABC has settled a defamation lawsuit by Donald Trump to the tune of $15 million. According to the court documents, the money is to be paid “to a Presidential foundation and museum to be established by [Trump].” Last year, the president-elect sued ABC and George Stephanopoulos for defamation, after the host stated that Trump was found “liable for rape by a jury” in an interview with Republican Representative Nancy Mace.
The case that Stephanopoulos was referring to was that of author E. Jean Carroll, who sued Trump for defamation after he called her a liar for speaking out publicly against him, claiming that he had raped her in the 1990s. Judge Lewis Kaplan found Trump liable for defaming and sexually abusing Carroll – not raping her – and issued a judgment of $83 million against the former president. In his judgment, Powell acknowledged that Carroll had not been able to prove that Trump had “raped” here according to New York’s laws, but that her claims that he did were in line with the notion of rape “as many people commonly understand the word.” Stephanopoulos repeatedly used the term “rape” and not “sexual assault” in the interview where he referred to the case.
Trump has appealed the judgment against him in the E. Jean Carroll case.
The settlement comes one day after Stephanopoulos and the president-elect were meant to take part in a pre-trial deposition in this case. As part of the agreement, ABC will issue the following statement under the article on the matter from March 10, 2024: “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 network will also be paying $1 million in attorneys’ fees.
The settlement is a somewhat rare legal victory for Trump, who has a history of seeking legal damages from his critics, and has frequently lamented what he sees as the limited applicability of libel laws. On October 31st, just days before last month’s presidential election, then-candidate Trump sued CBS for $10 billion, accusing the channel of deceptive and manipulative practices on its flagship 60 Minutes program in an “attempt to tip the scales” in favor of his opponent, Kamala Harris.
