By Maria Ortiz
Dec 14, 2024, 18:08 PM EST
ABC News and journalist George Stephanopoulos have reached an agreement with donald trump in a defamation lawsuit that will result in ABC News paying $15 million to a charity and issuing an apology.
The agreement was publicly presented on Saturday and reveals that ABC will make the payment as a charitable contribution to a “presidential foundation and museum to be established by or for the plaintiff.” The network will also pay $1 million in Trump’s attorney fees.
The lawsuit, filed on July 15 by Trump’s lawyers in the Southern District Court of Florida, accuses Stephanopoulos of making statements with malice and knowing that they were false.
In a March 10 interview with Republican Rep. Nancy Mace of South Carolina, Stephanopoulos said Trump had been “found responsible for rape.”
Last year, a New York jury found Trump responsible for sexually abusing writer E. Jean Carroll and defaming her with statements he made denying Carroll’s accusations.
The judge who heard the case said the sexual assault for which Trump was found responsible — forcibly penetrating Carroll with his fingers — is commonly understood as “rape,” although the statute defines it as a separate crime.
In his complaint, Trump accused Stephanopoulos of acting “with true malice or reckless disregard for the truth,” and stated that Stephanopoulos “knows that these statements are patently and demonstrably false.”
With the agreement, the news network, the journalist and the president-elect avoid a trial that was about to begin.
Keep reading:
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• Federal judge confirms his verdict against Donald Trump for having slandered E. Jean Carroll