ABC News and its lead anchor, George Stephanopoulos, have reached a settlement with Donald Trump in a defamation lawsuit, agreeing to pay the president-elect $15 million.
The settlement, filed publicly on Saturday, allows both parties to avoid a lengthy and expensive trial. As part of the agreement, ABC News will contribute $15 million to a “Presidential foundation and museum to be established by or for the Plaintiff, following the tradition of past U.S. presidents.” The network will also cover $1 million in Trump’s legal fees.
In addition, ABC News and Stephanopoulos issued statements of “regret” appended as an editor’s note to a March 10, 2024, online article. The note addresses remarks made earlier in the year that led to Trump filing the defamation suit. It 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 the claim ten times during his exchange with Mace, even though a jury had specifically found Trump liable for “sexual abuse,” a term with a distinct legal definition under New York law.
After the federal jury concluded that Trump was liable for sexual abuse but not rape, Judge Lewis Kaplan clarified in a subsequent ruling that Carroll’s inability to prove rape “under the New York Penal Law” did not mean she failed to demonstrate that Trump had “‘raped’ her as the term is commonly understood.”
Initially, Stephanopoulos remained defiant in response to Trump’s lawsuit, telling CBS late-night host Stephen Colbert that he wouldn’t be “cowed out of doing my job because of a threat.”
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“Trump sued me because I used the word ‘rape,’ even though a judge said that’s essentially what happened. We filed a motion to dismiss,” Stephanopoulos stated during the interview.
The settlement followed an order from U.S. Magistrate Judge Lisette M. Reid on Friday, requiring Trump and Stephanopoulos to sit for depositions next week, ahead of the Dec. 24 deadline for filing a motion for summary judgment to potentially avoid a trial.
In the defamation case, Trump was represented by Florida attorneys Alejandro Brito and Richard Klugh, who are also handling his legal battle against CNN. The settlement agreement with ABC News was officially filed in the Southern District of Florida Federal Court, where both parties signed and finalized the terms.
The settlement follows a series of legal victories for Trump and his legal team, led by senior legal adviser Boris Epshteyn.
Federal Judge Tanya Chutkan recently granted Special Counsel Jack Smith’s request to dismiss his case against Trump related to the 2020 election. On Monday, Smith also withdrew his appeal in the classified records case after a federal judge had dismissed the charges in July, ruling his appointment as special counsel was unlawful.
In New York v. Trump, Judge Juan Merchan approved Trump’s request to file a motion to dismiss charges brought by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg and removed the president-elect’s sentencing date from the court’s schedule.
Trump is also pursuing a $10 billion lawsuit against CBS News, accusing the network of “deceptive conduct” aimed at election interference during its October interview with Vice President Kamala Harris.
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