ABC News to pay Donald Trump $15 million in defamation lawsuit

The American media ABC News must pay $15 million to settle a defamation lawsuit filed by re-elected President Donald Trump, according to court documents filed on Saturday.

The lawsuit arose from live comments by host George Stephanopoulos, who said Trump was found “responsible for rape” during an interview with Congresswoman Nancy Mace that aired in March.

The terms of the agreement require that ABC News makes a $15 million donation to a fund dedicated to “a presidential foundation and museum” for Trump. Furthermore, along with Stephanopoulos, they must publicly apologize. and the network will pay an additional $1 million in attorney fees.

The case was resolved a day after Judge Lisette M. Reid asked Trump and Stephanopoulos to testify.

With the agreement, the news network, the journalist and the president-elect avoid a trial that was about to begin. In the legal complaint, Trump accused Stephanopoulos, host of the popular show This Week With George Stephanopoulosfor having falsely said on several occasions that the president-elect had been found guilty of violating the writer E. Jean Carroll,
in a case from 2023.

(Also read: Donald Trump, to pay $83.3 million for defaming a journalist: “He destroyed my reputation”)

Last May, a jury already convicted the president-elect of sexual abuse, as well as for subsequently defaming her. The jury had found Trump responsible for sexual abuse, but not rape, and forced him to pay $5 million to Carroll.

The settlement marks Trump’s latest legal victory since winning the Nov. 5 presidential election. That same month, a U.S. appeals court dismissed charges over his alleged mishandling of classified documents upon leaving the White House.

U.S. Special Counsel Jack Smith also halted a second federal case related to Trump’s attempts to change the results of the 2020 election, although the Republican faces racketeering charges on the same issue in a Georgia case.

(Also read: They close the case against Donald Trump for electoral interference and assault on the Capitol in 2021)

Furthermore, after Trump’s conviction in May in the case of payment to buy the silence of a former porn actress, Judge Juan Merchan indefinitely postponed the sentence.