ABC News has agreed to pay US President-elect Donald Trump $15m (£12m) to settle a defamation suit after its star lied about being found guilty of “rape”.
George Stephanopoulos made these statements repeatedly during an interview on March 10 of this year while challenging the congressman for his support for Trump.
A judge in a tort case last year it was decided Trump was guilty of “sexual harassment”, which has a specific definition under New York law.
As part of Saturday’s settlement, first reported by Fox News Digital, ABC will also publish a statement expressing its “regret” for Stephanopoulos’ statements.
According to the agreement, ABC News will pay $15m as a charitable contribution to “the President’s foundation and museum to be established by the Plaintiff or the plaintiff, as the Presidents of the United States of America have established in the past”.
The network also agreed to pay $1m of Trump’s legal fees.
Under the agreement, the network will post an editorial note at the end of its March 10, 2024, online headline about the story.
It will say: “ABC News and George Stephanopoulos regret statements about President Donald J Trump made during George Stephanopoulos’ interview with Rep. Nancy Mace on ABC’s This Week on March 10, 2024.”
A spokesperson for ABC News said in a statement that the company is “pleased that the parties have reached an agreement to dismiss the case according to the terms filed in court”.
In 2023, a New York civil court found Trump sexually assaulted E Jean Carroll in a department store closet in 1996. He was also found guilty of defaming a newspaper writer.
Judge Lewis Kaplan said the jury’s conclusion was that Ms Carroll had failed to prove Trump raped her “under the narrow, technical definition of a certain section of the New York Penal Code”.
Judge Kaplan noted that the definition of rape is “much narrower” than rape is defined in common modern language, in some dictionaries and criminal statutes in other jurisdictions.
In another case, presided over by the same judge, the judge ordered Trump to pay $83.3m to Ms Carroll for further defamatory statements.
During the March 10 broadcast, Stephanopoulos asked South Carolina Republican Congresswoman Nancy Mace how she would endorse Trump.
The anchor lied and said “two different judges and juries found him guilty of rape”.
Stephanopoulos repeated the claim 10 times during the broadcast.
Before the ruling, a federal magistrate judge ordered Trump and Stephanopoulos to provide sworn testimony at a deposition next week.
Trump also accused CBS, the US broadcaster of the BBC, of ”manipulative behavior” over an interview with Kamala Harris.
In 2023, the judge dismissed his defamation suit against CNN, where he said the network compared him to Adolf Hitler.
Charges against the New York Times and the Washington Post were dismissed.
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