ABC News and anchor George Stephanopoulos agreed to settle a defamation lawsuit that President-elect Donald Trump had filed and will pay Trump $15 million, attorneys fees, and issue a public apology.
The Hill reported that the news outlet and Stephanopoulos agreed to issue a “public apology” and to provide $15 million that would go towards Trump’s “future presidential library.”
The outlet noted that “under the settlement agreement,” along with “$15 million in escrow” to go towards Trump’s future library, ABC News “agreed to pay $1 million in attorney’s fees and add an editors’ note to the bottom of the relevant article.”
Under the settlement agreement, the network will put the $15 million in escrow to ultimately be used toward Trump’s future presidential library and foundation. ABC also agreed to pay $1 million in attorney’s fees and add an editors’ note to the bottom of the relevant article, court documents show.
“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 note reads.
ABC must also issue a statement of regret for their slander of the incoming president, which occurred during the election cycle.
As Breitbart News’s Wendell Husebo previously reported, in March, Trump filed a defamation lawsuit against ABC News and Stephanopoulos. Trump claimed that his “reputation was besmirched” by Stephanopoulos claiming during an interview with Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC) that two juries had found Trump “liable for rape” in the case against E. Jean Carroll.
The incident occurred during Stephanopoulos’s interview with Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC) on March 10. Stephanpoulos said during the interview, “Judges and two separate juries have found him liable for rape and for defaming the victim of that rape. How do you square your endorsement of Donald Trump with the testimony we just saw?”
An ABC News spokesperson expressed in a statement to the Hill that the news outlet was “pleased that the parties have reached an agreement to dismiss the lawsuit on the terms in the court filing.”
“It is encouraging to see the legacy media being held accountable for slandering someone they politically oppose,” Breitbart News senior legal contributor Ken Klukowski said in response to the settlement. “The Supreme Court in 1964 improperly invented a First Amendment defamation shield when it comes to public figures like President Trump, so this settlement highlights just how outrageous Stephanopoulos’s lies were, and should embolden Republicans and conservatives to push back in the face of such egregious misconduct.”
Source:Breitbart News Rephrased By: InfoArmed