ABC News has agreed to pay $15 million to Donald Trump’s presidential library to settle a lawsuit over anchor George Stephanopoulos’ incorrect on-air statement that the president-elect had been found civilly liable for raping writer E. Jean Carroll.
According to settlement documents made public Saturday, ABC will also apologize for the claim in a March 10 segment on Stephanopoulos’ “This Week” program and pay $1 million in legal fees to Trump’s lawyer.
ABC News said in a statement: “We are pleased that the parties have reached an agreement to dismiss the lawsuit on the terms set forth in the court filing.”
Trump sued Stephanopoulos and ABC for defamation days after the anchor claimed during an interview with Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.) that Trump had been “found liable for rape,” misrepresenting the verdicts in Carroll’s two lawsuits against him.
Last year, Trump was found liable for sexual assault and defamation against Carroll and ordered to pay her $5 million. In January, he was found liable for additional defamation claims and ordered to pay Carroll $83.3 million. Trump is appealing both verdicts.
Neither verdict included a finding of rape as defined by New York law.
Lewis Kaplan, the judge in both cases, stated that the jury concluded that Carroll failed to prove that Trump raped her “within the narrow, technical meaning of a particular section of the New York Penal Law.”
Kaplan noted that the definition of rape was “far narrower” than how it is defined in common modern parlance, dictionaries, federal and state criminal statutes, and other sources.
The judge stated that Carroll did not “fail to prove that Mr. Trump ‘raped’ her, as many people commonly understand the word ‘rape.'” Indeed, the jury concluded that Mr. Trump did exactly that.
