
<p>The President-Elect seems to have kicked off his “revenge is sweet tour” with a settlement and public apology in his defamation suit against the mainstream network.</p>



<p>ABC News says it will pay $15 million to a “presidential foundation and museum” in a settlement reached with Trump in his defamation suit ;against the network and star anchor George Stephanopoulos.</p>



<p>The settlement, which was filed publicly over the weekend, reveals the network will also pay $1 million in Trump’s attorneys’ fees and will issue an apology.</p>



<p>ABC News will issue the following statement as an editor’s note on the online article at the center of the suit: “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.”</p>



<p>“We are pleased that the parties have reached an agreement to dismiss the lawsuit on the terms in the court filing,” an ABC News spokesperson wrote in a statement.</p>



<p>Trump filed the lawsuit in Florida federal court earlier this year, arguing that Stephanopoulos and ABC News defamed him when the anchor said 10 times during a contentious on-air interview with South Carolina GOP Rep. Nancy Mace in March that a jury found Trump had “raped” E. Jean Carroll.</p>



<p>Carroll alleged that Trump raped her in a department store in the mid-1990s and that he defamed her when he denied her claim. Trump has denied all wrongdoing toward Carroll. In 2023, a jury found that Trump “sexually abused” Carroll sufficient to hold him liable for battery, though it did not find that Carroll proved he raped her. After that verdict, Judge Lewis Kaplan wrote that just because Carroll failed to prove rape &#8220;within the meaning of the New York Penal Law does not mean that she failed to prove that Mr. Trump ‘raped’ her as many people commonly understand the word ‘rape.’&#8221;</p>



<p>As part of the settlement, Stephanopoulos and ABC News also had to issue statements of &#8220;regret&#8221; as an editor&#8217;s note at the bottom of a March 10, 2024, ;online article about comments made earlier this year that prompted Trump to file the defamation lawsuit. The note now reads, &#8220;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.&#8221;</p>



<p>ABC News said the network was &#8220;pleased&#8221; to have concluded the case.</p>



<p>&#8220;We are pleased that the parties have reached an agreement to dismiss the lawsuit on the terms in the court filing,&#8221; an ABC News spokesperson said.</p>



<p>The settlement came after U.S. Magistrate Judge Lisette M. Reid ;ordered Trump and Stephanopoulos on Friday to sit for depositions next week ahead of the Dec. 24 deadline for the defendants to file a motion for summary judgment in order to avoid a trial.</p>

ABC Caves to Trump – Settles Defamation Suit
