ABC has agreed to contribute $15 million to Donald Trump’s presidential foundation and museum as part of a settlement reached in Trump’s defamation case against the network, according to a court filing today.
Trump sued the network earlier this year over remarks that This Week anchor George Stephanopoulos made during a contentious interview with Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC) in March.
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The network also will publish a statement that will be attached to an online article on the show, saying that “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 network also will pay $1 million to Brito, PLLC, the law firm representing Trump.
During the interview with Mace, Stephanopoulos said that “juries have found” Trump “liable for rape.” In a June ruling, a federal judge refused to dismiss the case, delivering a legal victory to Trump.
Last year, a civil jury found that Trump was liable for sexually abusing and defaming writer E. Jean Carroll. Trump contended that he was defamed as Stephanopoulos did not make the distinction.
The judge in Carroll’s case, Lewis Kaplan, wrote in a later ruling, “The finding that Ms. 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 many people commonly understand the word ‘rape.’ Indeed, as the evidence at trial recounted below makes clear, the jury found that Mr. Trump in fact did exactly that.”
Trump is appealing the jury’s verdicts in the Carroll civil case, in which juries have awarded her almost $90 million in damages.
An ABC News spokesperson said, “We are pleased that the parties have reached an agreement to dismiss the lawsuit on the terms in the court filing.”
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 OConnell, who oversees the news group; and Stephanopoulos, on Friday.
“ABC shall cause a transfer in the amount of fifteen million U.S. dollars USD $15,000,000) (The “charitable contribution”) to be made to a presidential foundation and museum to be established by or for Plaintiff, as Presidents of the United States of America have in the past, in full settlement and satisfaction of Plaintiff’s Released Claims as defined in paragraph 5(A) of this Agreement,” the settlement filing states. The contribution must be made within 10 days of the agreement’s effective date, and put into an escrow account established by Trump’s attorneys, who will serve as escrow agents for the specific contribution. Within 10 days after Trump or his lawyer present written confirmation that the entity has been established and that its 501 (c)(3) status has been established by the IRS, ABC then will authorize the escrow agent in writing to release the contribution to the foundation.
Trump has sued multiple outlets during and after his first term, but lawsuits against CNN and The New York Times were dismissed.
The settlement 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 that David Muir and Linsey Davis, the moderators of the September debate, fact checked him during the event. Trump even called for the network to lose its broadcast license, even though those are given to individual stations.
As Trump prepares to take office, a number of tech companies and their CEOs are trying to get in his good graces. Meta and Amazon are contributing $1 million each to Trump’s inaugural fund, and on Friday OpenAI confirmed to The New York Times that it planned to donate that sum as well.
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