ABC News to pay $15mn to settle defamation suit with Donald Trump

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ABC News will give $15mn to Donald Trump’s future presidential foundation and museum to settle a defamation suit against the network for on-air comments made by George Stephanopoulos, one of its star anchors, in a rare legal win for the president-elect against the news media.

As part of the settlement, the network also agreed to add an editor’s note at the bottom of a March article online expressing ABC and the anchor’s “regret” over what he said during an interview with Nancy Mace, a member of the US House of Representatives from South Carolina.

“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”, the network agreed to say. ABC is owned by Walt Disney Co.

The network will also pay $1mn for Trump’s legal fees.

Trump, who filed a lawsuit in federal court in Miami in March, alleged that Stephanopoulos had defamed him when the anchor said on his Sunday talk show that the president-elect had been found “liable for rape” while interviewing Mace.

The congresswoman has spoken publicly about being raped as a teenager, and Stephanopoulos asked her during the interview how, given that history, she could endorse Trump.

A New York jury found Trump liable in civil cases for the sexual abuse — but not rape — and subsequent defamation of writer E Jean Carroll, and ordered him to pay her more than $88mn across two judgments. Trump is appealing them.

The settlement between ABC and the president-elect, which was dated December 13, was made public on Saturday.

“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 said in a statement. Stephanopoulos did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Attorneys for Trump and spokespeople for his transition team did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Trump has long vilified the “mainstream media”, which he disparages as “fake news”.

The president-elect also has civil lawsuits pending against CBS News, journalist Bob Woodward, publisher Simon & Schuster, and is appealing the dismissal of a case he brought against CNN. He previously lost a defamation suit against The New York Times.