ABC News has agreed to pay $15 million toward Donald Trump‘s presidential library and issue a public apology to settle a defamation lawsuit over inaccurate statements made by anchor George Stephanopoulos during a broadcast earlier this year.
The settlement, disclosed in court documents released Saturday, comes just days after U.S. Magistrate Judge Lisette Reid ordered the president-elect and Stephanopoulos to submit to four-hour depositions. The resolution preempts the scheduled testimony from both parties.
Trump filed the defamation suit after Stephanopoulos claimed during a March 10 segment of ABC News’ This Week while interviewing Representative Nancy Mace, a South Carolina Republican, that Trump had been “found liable for rape” in connection to writer E. Jean Carroll’s lawsuits.
Newsweek has contacted the Trump transition team and ABC News via email on Saturday for comment.
The settlement terms require ABC News to publish a note on its website expressing regret over the claim. Additionally, the network will pay $1 million in legal fees to Trump’s attorneys.
“We are pleased that the parties have reached an agreement to dismiss the lawsuit on the terms in the court filing,” ABC News said in a statement.
Before the settlement, Reid had ordered Trump to sit for an in-person deposition in south Florida, while leaving open the possibility for Stephanopoulos to participate remotely. The depositions were scheduled for the week of December 16, with both parties limited to four hours of testimony.
At a court hearing before issuing the order, Reid expressed sympathy for defense counsel Nathan Siegel’s “frustration” with the president-elect avoiding a deposition. She acknowledged that while Trump had a “fairly good argument” to delay during the election, he “should be able to make himself available” now that the election was over.
The case stems from two previous verdicts involving Carroll. Last year, Trump was found liable for sexually abusing and defaming Carroll and was ordered to pay her $5 million. In January, he was ordered to pay Carroll $83.3 million on additional defamation claims but he is appealing both verdicts.
Judge Lewis Kaplan, who presided over both Carroll cases, clarified in July 2023 that the jury’s conclusion reflected specific legal definitions.
“The definition of rape in the New York Penal Law is far narrower than the meaning of ‘rape’ in common modern parlance, its definition in some dictionaries, in some federal and state criminal statutes, and elsewhere,” he wrote.
The judge further noted that the jury’s conclusion meant Carroll had failed to prove rape “within the narrow, technical meaning of a particular section of the New York Penal Law.” However, Kaplan emphasized this did not mean Carroll “failed to prove that Mr. Trump ‘raped’ her as many people commonly understand the word ‘rape.’”
During pre-settlement proceedings, Trump’s attorney, Alejandro Brito, had said he would “do everything in my power to make the president available” for the deposition while noting logistical concerns involving the Secret Service. After Siegel offered to hold the deposition near Mar-a-Lago, both parties agreed to move the initial trial date from April 7 to June 9.
In July, ABC News and Stephanopoulos attempted to dismiss the suit, arguing that Kaplan’s remarks meant the rape claim was “substantially true.” The motion was rejected in federal court.
Unlike other legal proceedings that have been dropped or delayed due to the president-elect’s impending return to the White House, this case had been expected to continue during Trump’s second term since he was the plaintiff and it was a civil matter.
This article includes reporting from The Associated Press.
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