ABC News is facing a storm of criticism after announcing that it would pay $15 million to settle a defamation suit with President-elect Donald Trump that involved its anchor George Stephanopoulos. The network disclosed the settlement over the weekend, indicating that the payment would be in the form of a donation to a future Trump presidential foundation and museum.
“We are pleased that the parties have reached an agreement to dismiss the lawsuit on the terms in the court filing,” an ABC spokesperson said in a statement provided to TVNewser.
The legal dispute stemmed from an interview with Rep. Nancy Mace on the March 10 edition of the Sunday morning show This Week With George Stephanopoulos. During the conversation, Stephanopoulos referred to Trump as being found “liable for rape” following his guilty verdicts in a pair of defamation cases brought by author E. Jean Carroll. Trump was ordered to pay $5 million in the first case and $83.3 million in the second. Both cases are currently being appealed.
In its lawsuit against ABC News, Trump’s legal team emphasized that he had been found liable for sexual abuse, not rape, and accused Stephanopoulos of harming the president-elect’s reputation. But the presiding judge in the case, Lewis Kaplan, clarified the ruling, noting: “The finding that Ms. Carroll failed to prove that she was ‘raped’ within the meaning of the New York Penal Law does not mean that she failed to prove that Mr. Trump ‘raped’ her as many people commonly understand the word ‘rape.’”
As part of the settlement, ABC News will also include an editor’s note in the online article accompanying the broadcast that 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.”
The network’s decision to settle the lawsuit has been met with no small amount of anger both outside—and reportedly inside—ABC. In social media posts, some journalists have characterized it as an ominous sign for how legacy media outlets may handle the second Trump administration, which is already signaling that it intends to be more litigious of press coverage it deems critical.
ABC News settled Donald Trump’s defamation suit against the network and George Stephanopoulos because “this problem needed to go away,” an ABC executive remarked on condition of anonymity.
— Brian Stelter (@brianstelter) December 16, 2024
