ABC News has agreed to pay US$15 million toward Donald Trump’s presidential library to settle a lawsuit over anchor George Stephanopoulos’ inaccurate on-air assertion that the US president-elect had been found civilly liable for raping writer E. Jean Carroll.
According to settlement documents made public Saturday, ABC will also post a note on its website expressing regret over the claim in a March 10 segment on Stephanopoulos’ This Week programme and pay US$1 million in legal fees to Trump’s lawyer.
In a statement, ABC News said: “We are pleased that the parties have reached an agreement to dismiss the lawsuit on the terms in the court filing.”
Trump sued Stephanopoulos and ABC for defamation days after the anchor claimed during an interview with Republican congresswoman Nancy Mace that Trump had been “found liable for rape”, which misstated the verdicts in Carroll’s two lawsuits against him.
Last year, Trump was found liable for sexually assaulting and defaming Carroll and was ordered to pay her US$5 million. In January, he was found liable on additional defamation claims and ordered to pay Carroll US$83.3 million. Trump is appealing against both verdicts.
Neither verdict involved a finding of rape as defined under New York law.