ABC News has agreed to pay 15 million US dollars to President-elect Donald Trump to settle a defamation lawsuit after TV host George Stephanopoulos falsely claimed in an interview with a congressman on the 10th of March this year that Trump had been found “liable for rape”, on Sunday, the 15th of December, reports the British broadcaster BBC.
Last year, a jury in a civil case found Trump liable for “sexual abuse” not rape, which has a specific definition under New York law.
Under the settlement, ABC News will pay 15 million US dollars as a charitable contribution “to a presidential foundation and museum to be established by or on behalf of the plaintiff, as US presidents have done in the past”.
The US media reported that the 15 million US dollars would be earmarked for Trump’s future presidential library.
The network also agreed to cover Trump’s legal expenses worth one million US dollars.
In an interview on the 10th of March, George Stephanopoulos repeatedly and falsely claimed that “judges and two separate juries have found [Trump] guilty of rape” when questioning Congresswoman Nancy Mace about her support for Trump.
Under the settlement, ABC News will add an editor’s note to the 10th of March 2024 article expressing regret for Stephanopoulos’ remarks in the interview with Mace.
An ABC News spokesperson said in a statement that the company was “pleased that the parties have reached an agreement to settle the lawsuit on the terms set out in the court filing”.
In 2023, a New York court found Trump guilty of sexually assaulting and defaming E. Jean Carroll, in a separate case, ordering him to pay 83.3 million US dollars for defamation. Trump has appealed both judgments.
Judge Lewis Kaplan said that the jury concluded that Carroll had not proved that Trump raped her “within the narrow, technical meaning of a specific section of the New York Penal Law”.
Trump has also sued CBS for “misleading conduct” in relation to the Kamala Harris interview.
In 2023, a judge dismissed his defamation suit against CNN, in which Trump claimed that the broadcaster had likened him to Adolf Hitler. Trump’s lawsuits against the New York Times and the Washington Post have also been dismissed.