ABC News will pay $15 million in settlement of President-elect Donald Trump defamation suit against the network and news anchor George Stephanopoulos. The network will contribute $15 million to Trump’s presidential foundation and museum to settle the lawsuit, according to documents filed in U.S. District Court on Saturday. The settlement, dated Friday, was signed by both Trump and Stephanopoulos.
In the lawsuit, Trump claimed that ABC News anchor Stephanopoulos’ statements were “false, intentional, malicious and designed to cause harm.” Trump accused ABC News and Stephanopoulos of acting “with actual malice or with a reckless disregard for the truth,” after Stephanopoulos said that Trump had been “found liable for rape” in a March 10 interview with Republican Rep. Nancy Mace of South Carolina, with the filing stating that Stephanopoulos “knows that these statements are patently and demonstrably false.”
According to the settlement, the defendants — identified as ABC, ABC News and Stephanopoulos — will also pay $1 million to Trump’s counsel, and add an “editor’s note” at the bottom of the March 10 online article that accompanied the interview which states: “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.”
An ABC News spokesperson told CNN: “We are pleased that the parties have reached an agreement to dismiss the lawsuit on the terms in the court filing.”
Editorial credit: Ralf Liebhold / Shutterstock.com