ABC, its news division and one of the network’s stars, George Stephanopoulos, have agreed to pay $15 million to settle a defamation lawsuit filed by then-presidential candidate Donald Trump earlier this year.
The settlement ends a months-long legal dispute over Stephanopoulos’ comments on his Sunday morning news program “This Week with George Stephanopoulos.”
During a March 10 interview with Rep. Nancy Mace, a South Carolina Republican, the veteran journalist said Trump had been found liable for the rape of writer E. Jean Carroll.
In May 2023, a federal jury in Manhattan found the former president liable for sexually assaulting the famous Elle columnist. However, the panel of six men and three women rejected her claim of rape as defined under New York law.
As part of the settlement agreement — signed Friday by Trump, Stephanopoulos and ABC executives — the network agreed to transfer $15 million to an escrow account controlled by the president-elect’s lawyers as a “charitable contribution” toward for the benefit of “a presidential foundation and museum to be established by or for Trump.
The network also agreed to pay $1 million in legal fees to the law firm of Trump’s attorney, Alejandro Brito.
Both deposits must be made within 10 calendar days.
In addition, ABC agreed to add the following apology statement to an online article about the interview, headlined “Nancy Mace defends her support for Trump after he was found liable for sexual assault”:
“ABC News and George Stephanopoulos regret statements made about President Donald J. Trump during an interview by George Stephanopoulos with Rep. Nancy Mace on ABC’s This Week on March 10, 2024.”
Under the settlement agreement, the one-sentence statement was to be published within one calendar day as an editor’s note at the bottom of the article.
