Donald Trump awarded $15m in ABC News defamation case
ABC News has agreed to pay US President-elect Donald Trump $15m (£12m) to settle a defamation lawsuit after its star anchor falsely claimed he was “responsible for a rape”.
George Stephanopoulos made the remarks multiple times during an interview on March 10 this year, when he questioned a congresswoman’s support for Trump.
Juries in civil cases Confirmed last year Trump is responsible for “sexual abuse,” which New York law specifically defines.
As part of Saturday’s settlement, ABC will also issue a statement saying it “regrets” Stephanopoulos’ comments.
Under the settlement, ABC News will pay $15 million in charitable contributions to “presidential foundations and museums established by or for plaintiffs, as have been established by presidents of the United States of America in the past.”
The network also agreed to pay Trump $1 million in legal fees.
Under the settlement, the network will publish an editor’s note at the bottom of an online news article about the story on March 10, 2024.
It would say: “ABC News and George Stephanopoulos on George Stephanopoulos’ interview with Rep. Nancy Mace on Donald Trump’s “This Week” episode on March 10, 2024 on ABC “President J. Trump expressed regret for his remarks.”
In 2023, a New York civil court found that Trump sexually abused E Jean Carroll in a department store dressing room in 1996. He was also found guilty of defaming the magazine columnist.
Judge Lewis Kaplan said the jury concluded that Ms. Carroll failed to prove that Mr. Trump raped her “within the narrow technical meaning of a specific section of New York’s criminal law.”
Kaplan noted that the definition of rape is “much narrower” than the definition of rape found in modern parlance commonly found in some dictionaries and other local criminal laws.
In a separate case also presided over by Kaplan, a jury ordered Trump to pay Ms. Carroll $83.3 million for more defamatory statements.
During the March 10 broadcast, Stephanopoulos asked South Carolina Republican Rep. Nancy Mace how she could support Trump.
The anchor falsely claimed that “a judge and two separate juries found him guilty of rape.”
Stephanopoulos repeated the statement ten times throughout the broadcast.
Trump has a history of filing defamation lawsuits against the news media. He is also suing BBC US broadcast partner CBS for “deceptive conduct” during his interview with Kamala Harris.
2023, Judge dismisses his defamation lawsuit Against CNN, he claimed the network compared him to Adolf Hitler.
