Donald Trump awarded $15 million in ABC Information defamation case

ABC Information has agreed to pay US president-elect Donald Trump $15 million (£12 million) to settle a defamation lawsuit after its star presenter falsely claimed he had been discovered “answerable for rape”.

George Stephanopoulos made these statements a number of instances throughout an interview on March 10 of this 12 months, whereas difficult a congresswoman over her assist for Trump.

A jury in a civil case last year determined Trump was answerable for “sexual abuse,” which has a particular definition in New York regulation.

As a part of Saturday’s settlement, ABC may also launch a press release expressing “remorse” for Stephanopoulos’ statements.

In line with the settlement, ABC Information will make $15 million as a charitable contribution to “a presidential basis and museum to be established by or for the plaintiff, as presidents of america of America have established up to now “.

The community additionally agreed to pay $1 million towards Trump’s authorized charges.

As a part of the settlement, the community will publish an editor’s be aware on the backside of its March 10, 2024 on-line information article on the story.

It can say: “ABC Information and George Stephanopoulos remorse statements concerning President Donald J. Trump made throughout an interview George Stephanopoulos with Consultant Nancy Mace on ABC’s This Week on March 10, 2024.”

An ABC Information spokesperson mentioned in a press release that the corporate was “happy that the events have reached an settlement to dismiss the lawsuit below the phrases of the courtroom submitting.”

In 2023, a New York civil courtroom dominated that Trump sexually abused E. Jean Carroll in a division retailer dressing room in 1996. He was additionally convicted of defamation in opposition to the journal columnist.

Justice Lewis Kaplan mentioned the jury’s conclusion was that Ms. Carroll did not show that Trump raped her “within the slender and technical sense of a selected part of New York felony regulation.”

Justice Kaplan famous that the definition of rape was “a lot narrower” than the definition of rape in frequent fashionable parlance, in some dictionaries, and in felony statutes elsewhere.

In one other case, additionally presided over by the identical choose, a jury ordered Trump to pay Ms. Carroll $83.3 million for extra defamatory statements.

On the March 10 present, Stephanopoulos requested South Carolina Republican Rep. Nancy Mace how she might assist Trump.

The presenter falsely said that “judges and two separate juries discovered him answerable for rape.”

Stephanopoulos repeated this assertion 10 instances all through the present.

Earlier than the ruling, a federal choose ordered Trump and Stephanopoulos to testify below oath throughout depositions subsequent week.

Trump additionally sued CBS, the BBC’s US broadcast accomplice, for “deceptive conduct” following an interview with Kamala Harris.

In 2023, a judge dismissed his defamation lawsuit in opposition to CNN, by which he claimed that the community had in contrast him to Adolf Hitler.

He additionally noticed lawsuits filed in opposition to the New York Occasions and the Washington Publish dismissed.