ABC has agreed to pay $15 million to Donald Trump’s presidential foundation and museum as part of Trump’s settlement of defamation lawsuits against the network, according to a court filing today.
Trump sued the network earlier this year over the comments This week anchor George Stephanopoulos did during a debate with Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC) in March.
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The network will also release a statement that will be included in the online version of the show, saying “ABC News and George Stephanopoulos regret the comments made about President Donald J. Trump during an interview with George Stephanopoulos and Rep. Nancy Mace on ABC’s This. Sunday, March 10, 2024.”
The network also will pay $1 million to Brito, PLLC, the law firm representing Mr. Trump.
During an interview with Mace, Stephanopoulos said that “the jury found” Trump “guilty of rape.” In a June ruling, the judge declined to dismiss the case, handing a legal victory to Trump.
Last year, a jury found Trump guilty of sexually harassing and defaming author E. Jean Carroll. Trump argued that he was defamed because Stephanopoulos did not make a difference.
The judge in Carroll’s case, Lewis Kaplan, wrote in the following judgment, that: “Finding that Mrs. 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 most people understand the word ‘rape.’ Indeed, as the trial evidence cited below makes clear, the jury found that Mr. Trump did indeed do it.
Trump is appealing the federal court’s decision in Carroll, in which the jury awarded him $90 million in damages.
A spokesperson for ABC News said, “We are pleased that the parties have reached an agreement to have this case dismissed according to what is in the courts.”
The settlement comes one day after a magistrate judge ordered Trump and Stephanopoulos to sit for depositions next week.
The settlement agreement was signed by Trump; ABC executive Debra O’Connell, who oversees the news team; and Stephanopoulos, on Friday.
“ABC will cause the amount of 15 million American dollars (US$15,000,000) to be made to the foundation of the president and the museum will be established by the Plaintiff, as the President of the United States of America. in the past, in full settlement and satisfaction of the Plaintiff’s Published Claims as described in paragraph 5(A) of this Agreement,” the settlement filing states. The donation must be made within 10 days from the effective date of the agreement, and deposited into an escrow account established by Trump’s attorneys, who will act as escrow agents for the actual donation. Within 10 days after Mr. Trump or his attorney provides written evidence that the corporation has been dissolved and that its 501(c)(3) status has been established by the IRS, ABC will then authorize the escrow agent in writing to release the donation to it. foundation.
Trump sued many places during and after his first term, but the lawsuits against CNN and The New York Times were dismissed.
The amendment is being made just weeks before Trump returns to the White House. In addition to the defamation lawsuit, he attacked ABC News over the way David Muir and Linsey Davis, the hosts of the September debate, looked at him during the event. Trump has even called for the network to lose its broadcasting license, even though those are given to private broadcasters.
As Trump prepares to take office, a number of tech companies and their CEOs are trying to get into his good graces. Meta and Amazon are donating $1 million each to Trump’s primary fund, and on Friday OpenAI confirmed to The New York Times that it planned to donate that money as well.
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