ABC News has agreed to pay $15 million to a presidential foundation and museum associated with President-elect Donald Trump to settle a defamation lawsuit involving network anchor George Stephanopoulos. The suit stemmed from Stephanopoulos' on-air statements mischaracterizing jury findings in civil cases brought by writer E. Jean Carroll against Trump.
In the settlement announced Saturday, ABC News also committed to paying $1 million in Trump's legal fees and issued a formal apology. The network will publish an editor's note acknowledging the error in the original article that prompted the lawsuit. It will state, in part: "ABC News and George Stephanopoulos regret statements regarding President Donald J. Trump made during an interview with Rep. Nancy Mace on ABC's This Week on March 10, 2024."
"We are pleased that the parties have reached an agreement to dismiss the lawsuit," an ABC News spokesperson said in a statement.
Trump filed the lawsuit earlier this year in federal court in Miami, alleging that Stephanopoulos defamed him by repeatedly stating on-air that a jury had found him guilty of "rape" in a case involving Carroll. A jury in 2023 found Trump liable for sexually abusing Carroll, awarding her $5 million for battery and defamation. However, it did not conclude he committed rape under New York law.
Stephanopoulos' statements aired during a contentious interview with Rep. Mace and misrepresented the jury's findings, Trump's attorneys argued. The legal filing called the remarks "false, intentional, and malicious."
The settlement comes just one day after a federal judge ruled that Trump and Stephanopoulos would need to sit for depositions in the case. By settling, Trump avoids giving sworn testimony, which could have posed legal risks as he prepares for his return to the White House in January.
Under the terms of the agreement, ABC will transfer the $15 million settlement amount to an escrow account managed by Trump's legal team. The funds are earmarked for a nonprofit associated with Trump's upcoming presidential library.
The settlement was signed by Trump, ABC News Group President Debra OConnell, and an electronically signed document by Stephanopoulos. While ABC's payment is significant, it represents only a fraction of the expected cost of building the presidential library.
The original defamation claim against ABC focused on how the network's coverage of the Carroll lawsuits misrepresented legal findings. In the first case, a jury found Trump liable for sexual abuse, but it did not conclude that he raped Carroll under the narrow definition provided by New York law. The second case involved additional defamatory statements made by Trump about Carroll, which led to an $83.3 million judgment in her favor earlier this year.
Trump has consistently denied Carroll's allegations, calling them "false" and "a hoax." Carroll alleged in her 2019 memoir that Trump raped her in a dressing room at a Manhattan department store in the mid-1990s. Trump publicly denied ever knowing Carroll, prompting her to file the defamation lawsuits.
During her testimony, Carroll stated, "I'm here because Donald Trump raped me, and when I wrote about it, he said it didn't happen. He lied and shattered my reputation." While the jury did not find Trump liable for rape under the strict legal definition, the court's decisions upheld that he committed sexual abuse and defamed Carroll with his public denials.
The settlement with ABC marks the latest in a series of legal battles between Trump and major media outlets. In October, Trump filed a $10 billion lawsuit against CBS over an interview with Vice President Kamala Harris on 60 Minutes, alleging partisan bias and election interference.
