ABC News has agreed to settle a lawsuit brought by Donald Trump over the statements of host George Stephanopoulos.
The network will pay Trump $15 million to bring an end to the president-elect’s defamation suit, brought by Trump after Stephanopoulos said that he had been found “liable for rape” in the lawsuits brought by E. Jean Carroll.
The $15 million will go directly to a future presidential foundation and museum. The network also issued an apology as part of the settlement.
“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,'” the apology included in the settlement filing read.
Trump filed the suit earlier this year, maintaining that a jury found him liable of sexual abuse, not rape. The judge in that Carroll case later ruled that Trump’s attempt to put daylight between the two terms was a distinction without a difference. Judge Lewis Kaplan said that Trump’s actions would be called “rape” in everyday speech.
“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,’ ” Kaplan ruled.
The ongoing defamation lawsuit would have forced Trump and Stephanopoulos to sit for depositions. Earlier this week, the judge in Trump’s suit ordered them to make time for the court, saying there was “no reason for any further delay.”
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