Source: Associated Press
“ABC News has agreed to pay $15 million toward Donald Trump’s presidential library to settle a defamation lawsuit over anchor George Stephanopoulos’[s] inaccurate on-air assertion that the president-elect had been found civilly liable for raping writer E. Jean Carroll. As part of the settlement made public Saturday, ABC News posted an editor’s note to its website expressing regret over Stephanopoulos’[s] statements during a March 10 segment on his ‘This Week’ program. The network will also pay $1 million in legal fees to the law firm of Trump’s attorney, Alejandro Brito. … Stephanopoulos wrongly claimed that Trump had been ‘found liable for rape’ and ‘defaming the victim of that rape.’ Neither verdict involved a finding of rape as defined under New York law. … Trump was found liable last year of sexually abusing and defaming Carroll.” (12/14/24)