ABC Information and anchor George Stephanopoulos agreed on Saturday to pay $15m to a basis and museum to be established by Donald Trump as a part of a settlement within the defamation lawsuit Trump filed in opposition to the community earlier this 12 months.
Along with $15m, ABC Information and Stephanopoulos agreed to subject statements of remorse surrounding a March interview Stephanopoulos had with South Carolina’s Republican consultant – and Trump ally – Nancy Mace through which he repeatedly claimed that Trump had been discovered “responsible for rape”.
In the course of the interview, Stephanopoulos mentioned quite a few occasions {that a} jury had discovered Trump “responsible for rape” in a lawsuit filed by the columnist E Jean Carroll. Carroll had accused Trump of sexually assaulting and raping her at Bergdorf Goodman, a New York Metropolis division retailer, within the Nineties.
Final 12 months, a jury discovered that Trump had “sexually abused” Carroll below New York regulation, however didn’t rape her. Trump was subsequently ordered to pay Carroll $5m. He was additionally ordered to pay Carroll $83.3m after being discovered liable on defamation claims.
Following Stephanopoulos’s remarks in his interview with Mace, Trump filed the defamation lawsuit in opposition to the US community and Stephanopoulos, considered one of ABC Information’s predominant anchors.
Stephanopoulos remained defiant, telling talkshow host Stephen Colbert in Might that he wouldn’t be “cowed out of doing my job due to a menace”.
Based on Saturday’s settlement, ABC Information will “switch within the quantity of fifteen million US {dollars} … to be made to a presidential basis and museum to be established by or for [Donald Trump], as presidents of america of America have established up to now … .”
The settlement additionally states that ABC Information and Stephanopoulos “shall publicly publish the next assertion by including it as an editor’s be aware on the backside of a March 10, 2024 on-line article [surrounding Stephanopoulos’s interview]: ‘ABC Information and George Stephanopoulos remorse statements concerning president Donald J Trump made throughout an interview by George Stephanopoulos with rep Nancy Mace on ABC’s This Week on March 10, 2024’”.
The community and Stephanopoulos can even pay $1m in Trump’s legal professional charges, the settlement mentioned.
In change, Trump will file a dismissal of the lawsuit and “take no matter different actions obligatory to make sure that the motion is dismissed in its entirety with prejudice”.
In a assertion to the Hill, an ABC Information spokesperson mentioned: “We’re happy that the events have reached an settlement to dismiss the lawsuit on the phrases within the court docket submitting.”
Trump has but to publicly touch upon the settlement.
Supply hyperlink
