Another win for Trump…
ABC News and its top anchor George Stephanopoulos have reached a $15 million settlement with Donald Trump in his defamation suit.
The settlement was publicly filed on Saturday, revealing that the two parties have come to an agreement and avoided a trial.
According to the settlement, ABC News will pay $15 million as a charitable contribution to a “Presidential foundation and museum to be established by or for Plaintiff, as Presidents of the United States of America have established in the past.” Additionally, the network will pay $1 million in Trump’s attorney fees.
Stephanopoulos and ABC News also had to issue statements of “regret” as an editor’s note at the bottom of a March 10, 2024, online article, about comments made earlier this year that prompted Trump to file the defamation lawsuit. The note reads, “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.”
ABC News said the network was “pleased” to have concluded the case.
“We are pleased that the parties have reached an agreement to dismiss the lawsuit on the terms in the court filing,” an ABC News spokesperson told Fox News Digital.
Trump filed a defamation suit against Stephanopoulos after he asserted that Trump was found “liable for rape” in a civil case during a contentious interview with Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.) last March.
After playing a clip of Mace discussing being a victim of rape, Stephanopoulos asked her, “How do you square your endorsement of Donald Trump with the testimony we just saw?”
“You’ve endorsed Donald Trump for president. Judges and two separate juries have found him liable for rape and for defaming the victim of that rape,” Stephanopoulos said, alluding to the legal victory by Trump accuser E. Jean Carroll.
Stephanopoulos repeated that claim ten times during his spat with Mace, despite the fact that a jury actually determined Trump was liable for “sexual abuse,” which has a distinct definition under New York law.
Liberals across social media have criticized ABC News for “bending the knee” to the incoming President.
Marc E. Elias, a Democratic election lawyer, accused ABC News of bending the knee and kissing the ring by settling.
“Knee bent. Ring kissed. Another legacy news outlet chooses obedience,” he wrote on X.
“I got to think that the ABC boardroom was involved in this decision somehow,” LA Times legal columnist Harry Litman said during the MSNBC appearance on Saturday. “And my big worry to put a finer point on what Barb is saying is it is somehow caught up in the fact he will be president soon.”
