In a major victory for US President-elect Donald Trump, ABC News has agreed to pay $15 million to settle a defamation suit filed by the Republican leader after the channel’s anchor George Stephanopoulos repeatedly said on-air that Trump had been found “liable for rape”.
One of the top anchors of ABC News, George Stephanopoulos, was interviewing US Representative Nancy Mace in March this year when he repeated the statements while Nancy made her pitch of supporting the president-elect.
According to the court filings, ABC News has agreed to pay a $15 million donation 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,” reported BBC.
🚨 George Stephanopoulos and ABC apologize to Trump, are forced to pay $15 million to settle defamation suit https://t.co/tbMRpRjDPI
— Trump War Room (@TrumpWarRoom) December 14, 2024
The settlement agreement also states that ABC News and Stephanopoulos will issue public apologies saying they “regret statements” made about the Republican leader during the interview conducted in March. ABC News also agreed to pay $1 million of legal fees incurred by Trump.
The apology, to be posted at the bottom of the March 10 interview’s online news article 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.”
In 2023, Trump was convicted by a New York civil court of sexually abusing writer E. Jean Carroll, which is a different transgression from rape. But ABC News anchor, during the interview of South Carolina Congresswoman claimed, “judges and two separate juries have found him liable for rape”.
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