NEW YORK (AP) — ABC News has agreed to pay $15 million towards Donald Trump’s presidential library to settle a defamation lawsuit over anchor George Stephanopoulos’ inaccurate on-air assertion that the president-elect had been found civilly liable for raping writer E. Jean Carroll.
As part of the settlement, ABC News posted an editor’s note to its website expressing regret over Stephanopoulos’ 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.
The settlement agreement describes ABC’s presidential library payment as a “charitable contribution,” with the money earmarked for a non-profit organization that is being established in connection with the yet-to-be built library.
The agreement was signed Friday, the same day a Florida federal judge ordered Trump and Stephanopoulos to sit for separate depositions in the case next week. The settlement means that sworn testimony is no longer required.
ABC News must transfer the $15 million for Trump’s library to an escrow account being managed by Brito’s law firm within 10 days. The network must also pay Brito’s legal fees within 10 days.
Despite the significant size of ABC’s contribution, it is likely to cover only a fraction of the cost of the library. Former President Barack Obama’s library in Chicago, for example, was estimated to cost $830 million as of 2021.
Trump sued ABC and Stephanopoulos in federal court in Miami days after the network aired the segment, in which the longtime “Good Morning America” anchor and “This Week” host repeatedly misstated the verdicts in Carroll’s two civil lawsuits against Trump. Trump was found liable in both cases, with a jury ordering him to pay Carroll $5 million in the first case and $83.3 million in the second.