ABC News agrees to pay $16M to settle Trump defamation case
Host George Stephanopoulos deletes X account after settlement
ABC News agreed to pay $15 million to President-elect Donald Trump's presidential library to settle a defamation lawsuit after ABC News anchor George Stephanopoulos falsely claimed earlier this year that Trump had been found "liable for rape" against writer E. Jean Carroll.
According to the settlement that was made public on Saturday, ABC News also agreed to pay $1 million in legal fees to the law firm of Alejandro Brito, who is Trump's attorney in Florida, according to The Associated Press.
Trump sued the network and Stephanopoulos after he said in March that multiple juries found Trump "liable for rape" during an interview with Rep. Nancy Mace, R-S.C.
Get Our Latest News for FREE
During the heated exchange on March 10 that led to the lawsuit, Stephanopoulos pressed Mace to explain why she would support Trump despite having recently gone public about being a rape victim herself.
“Judges and two separate juries have found him liable for rape and for defaming the victim of that rape,” Stephanopoulos said. “How do you square your endorsement of Donald Trump with the testimony we just saw?”
Mace pushed back against Stephanopoulos at the time, accusing the former Democrat operative of "shaming" her as a rape victim while pointing out how Carroll's lawsuit against Trump was a civil case that found him "liable for sexual abuse," not rape.
Mace later tweeted footage of the interview, writing, "I was brought on to talk about 2024 … instead Clinton crony turned fake journalist [Stephanopoulos] attacked me and tried to shame me as a rape victim. Gross."
I was brought on to talk about 2024…instead Clinton crony turned fake journalist @Gstephanopoulos attacked me and tried to shame me as a rape victim.
— Nancy Mace (@NancyMace) March 10, 2024
Gross.@ThisWeekABCpic.twitter.com/9uNhypsZdO
In the complaint that was filed against Stephanopoulos, ABC and ABC News on March 18, Brito argued that there was enough evidence to prove that Stephanopoulos engaged in the "actual malice" a public figure must demonstrate to prove defamation in court, which is usually difficult to prove.
“These statements were and remain false, and were made by Defendant Stephanopoulos with actual malice or with a reckless disregard for the truth given that Defendant Stephanopoulos knows that these statements are patently and demonstrably false,” Brito wrote at the time.
“We are pleased that the parties have reached an agreement to dismiss the lawsuit on the terms in the court filing,” ABC News spokesperson Jeannie Kedas said, according to the AP.
The editorial board of the New York Post suggested that Stephanopoulos crossed the line in what he said about Trump, and suggested that he was generous in allowing ABC News to pay the settlement toward his library and not to him personally.
"The law gives even public figures some rights against such smears; if the case had proceeded, Trump's legal team would've been able to access ABC News' internal communications in order to prove the network's reckless attitude toward the truth," they wrote.
"Trump was actually quite magnanimous in not making ABC pay him the settlement, even if the deal makes the company by far the largest donor to the Trump library," they added.
Stephanopoulos, who deactivated his X account in the wake of the settlement announcement, made no mention of it on his show on Sunday.
Jon Brown is a reporter for The Christian Post. Send news tips to jon.brown@christianpost.com
