ABC News has agreed to settle a defamation lawsuit filed by US President-elect Donald Trump, and will pay $15 million to a "presidential foundation and museum," according to a report by CNN.
The lawsuit, which also involved network anchor George Stephanopoulos, emerged from statements made in a March 2024 interview. As part of the settlement, ABC News will also pay $1 million to cover Trump's attorney fees and will issue an apology. ABC News will issue the following statement as an editor's note on the online article at the centre of the suit, "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 on March 10, 2024," CNN reported.
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In a statement, an ABC News spokesperson said, "We are pleased that the parties have reached an agreement to dismiss the lawsuit on the terms in the court filing." Earlier this year, Trump filed a defamation lawsuit in a Florida federal court, claiming that Stephanopoulos and ABC News ruined his reputation. The lawsuit centred around statements made by Stephanopoulos, who repeatedly said during an interview with South Carolina GOP Rep. Nancy Mace in March that a jury had determined Trump "raped" E. Jean Carroll.
In the lawsuit filed against ABC News in March, Trump claimed that Stephanopoulos' statements were "false, intentional, malicious and designed to cause harm," CNN reported.
Notably, American journalist and an advice columnist for the Elle magazine Elizabeth Jean Carroll had accused Trump of sexually assaulting her at a New York luxury department store in the late 1990s. Trump has denied all wrongdoing toward Carroll.
In May 2023, jurors in a trial awarded Carroll a little more than $2 million after finding Trump liable for sexually abusing her. They also found that Trump had defamed her in separate instances and awarded her $3 million in damages for those.