Settlement Recached In Trump Lawsuit
In a landmark victory for incoming President Donald Trump, ABC News and veteran anchor George Stephanopoulos have reached a costly settlement over defamatory statements made on-air, further solidifying the president-elect’s ability to push back against misinformation. The dispute arose from Stephanopoulos’s repeated claims during a televised interview that Trump was found “liable for rape” in the case involving journalist E. Jean Carroll. While a jury had found Trump liable for sexual abuse and defamation, the claims of rape were explicitly rejected.
Anderson Cooper went straight to commercial right after this comment. pic.twitter.com/hkM7KCYw71
— Cameron Cawthorne (@Cam_Cawthorne) June 25, 2019
According to court documents, the settlement includes ABC News paying $15 million to fund a Presidential foundation and museum to be established in Trump’s name, in addition to covering $1 million in Trump’s legal fees. The network and Stephanopoulos will also issue formal statements of regret for their repeated mischaracterization of the Carroll verdict.
The statement, released by ABC, reads:
"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."
This settlement represents a rare and high-profile acknowledgment of media overreach, signaling the growing legal risks for networks and journalists in an era of heightened scrutiny around defamation and misinformation.
The controversy began during a March interview on This Week, where Stephanopoulos discussed Trump’s legal battles with Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC), herself a survivor of rape. Over the course of the interview, Stephanopoulos repeatedly claimed that Trump had been found “liable for rape” nearly a dozen times, despite the federal jury’s clear verdict otherwise. This misstatement became the focal point of Trump’s legal challenge.
Rep. Mace, appearing as a guest during the interview, later expressed frustration over the mischaracterization, saying it detracted from broader issues surrounding how allegations of abuse are handled.
Rachel Maddow asks E. Jean Carroll what she's going to do with "Trump's money" to help "women's rights."
Carroll says she and Maddow will "go shopping, get completely new wardrobes, new shoes...Rachel, what do you want, penthouse?"
Her lawyer nervously says "that's a joke": pic.twitter.com/5LAx5xU5Uy
— Steve Krakauer (@SteveKrak) January 30, 2024
The lawsuit Stephanopoulos referenced involved journalist E. Jean Carroll, who accused Trump of sexual assault in the mid-1990s. While the jury found Trump liable for sexual abuse and defamation, it rejected the claim of rape. Trump has consistently denied Carroll’s allegations, and he was never criminally charged in the case.
The case itself drew significant public attention, especially after clips of Carroll’s 2019 CNN interview with Anderson Cooper resurfaced. In the interview, Carroll made controversial remarks about the “sexual connotations” of rape, at one point saying, “I think most people think of rape as being sexy,” before the segment abruptly went to commercial. Critics also noted Carroll’s comments about a potential spending spree with her awarded damages, which some saw as undermining the gravity of her claims.