ABC News and star anchor George Stephanopoulos have agreed to pay President-elect Trump $16 million to settle a defamation lawsuit.
The settlement was publicly filed Saturday, just days before the two sides were set to sit for depositions in the case.
ABC News agreed to pay a $15 million donation to a “Presidential foundation and museum to be established by or for [Trump], as Presidents of the United States of America have established in the past,” along with $1 million for Trump’s attorney fees, according to the settlement.
President-elect Trump must appear for an in-person deposition as part of his defamation suit against ABC News and its star anchor George Stephanopoulos. JASON BEAN/RGJ / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images
Stephanopoulos was slapped with a defamation suit by Trump after incorrectly stating multiple times on-air that Trump was found “liable for rape.” GC ImagesABC News and Stephanopoulos also would issue statements expressing their “regret” to the online article version of the anchor’s March interview that prompted Trump to file the federal lawsuit earlier this year, the settlement noted.
“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 apology would read, according to the settlement agreement.
Trump slapped ABC and Stephanopoulos with a lawsuit in Miami federal court after the network star incorrectly said multiple times Trump was “found liable for rape” during a “This Week” interview with Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC).
In May 2023, a Manhattan jury ordered Trump to pay $5 million to the former advice columnist E. Jean Carroll after finding him liable for sexually abusing her at a department store in 1996 and later defaming her in his statements where he denied her allegations.
Trump had sought unspecified damages.
The settlement, which was first reported by Fox News Digital, came just a day after Magistrate Judge Lisette Reid ordered Trump and Stephanopoulos to sit for hours-long depositions just days before Christmas.
