ABC News has agreed to pay $15 million towards Donald Trump’s presidential library to settle a lawsuit over an inaccurate claim made by anchor George Stephanopoulos. During a March 10 segment on “This Week,” Stephanopoulos stated that Trump had been found civilly liable for raping writer E. Jean Carroll. However, the settlement documents revealed that neither of the two lawsuits against Trump involved a finding of rape as defined under New York law.
According to the settlement, ABC will also post a note on its website expressing regret over the claim and pay $1 million in legal fees to Trump’s lawyer. The network released a statement saying it was “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 made the claim. The anchor had claimed that Trump had been “found liable for rape,” which misstated the verdicts in Carroll’s two lawsuits against him. Trump was found liable for sexually assaulting and defaming Carroll and was ordered to pay her $5 million, and later found liable on additional defamation claims and ordered to pay her $83.3 million. Trump is appealing both verdicts.