ABC News agrees to contribute $15 million to Trump presidential foundation to settle defamation suit
ABC News agreed to contribute $15 million to President-elect Donald Trump's presidential foundation and museum to settle a defamation lawsuit brought by Trump against the network, according to documents filed in U.S. District Court on Saturday.
Trump had accused ABC News anchor George Stephanopoulos of acting "with actual malice or with a reckless disregard for the truth," after Stephanopoulos said that Trump had been "found liable for rape" in a March 10 interview with Republican Rep. Nancy Mace of South Carolina.
Trump claimed in the filing Stephanopoulos "knows that these statements are patently and demonstrably false."
As part of the settlement, ABC News must also publish an "editor's note" at the bottom of the March 10 online article that accompanied the interview which states: "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."
Trump's presidential foundation and museum have yet to be established. As part of the deal, ABC News will also pay Trump's attorneys $1 million to cover legal fees.
The settlement, dated Friday, was signed by both Trump and Stephanopoulos.
"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 CBS News in a statement.
CBS News has also reached out to the Trump transition team for comment.
Earlier Friday, prior to both sides reaching an agreement, Magistrate Judge Lisette Reid had ordered Trump to sit next week for an in-person deposition in the case in the Southern District of Florida, where his Mar-a-Lago estate is located. Reid said the questioning would have been limited to four hours.
She had also ordered Stephanopoulos to sit for a deposition as well next week, either in person or remotely.
In May 2023, a federal jury in New York found Trump liable of sexual abuse in a civil lawsuit brought by writer E. Jean Carroll over an alleged incident that occurred in the dressing room of a Bergdorf Goodman department store in New York City in the mid-1990s. Trump was also found liable for defaming Carroll over comments he made about her after she published a book in 2019 detailing the alleged encounter.
The jury, however, did not find Trump liable for rape. He was ordered to pay Carroll $5 million in damages. Trump has vehemently denied the allegations.
In an August 2023 ruling in which he dismissed a defamation counterclaim from Trump against Carroll, U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan wrote that the jury had concluded Trump was not liable for rape because the case technically did meet the level of proof required under New York's penal code.
In January 2024, Trump was again found liable for defamation by a federal New York jury in a separate lawsuit filed by Carroll. He was ordered by that jury to pay another $83.3 million in damages.