ABC News to pay $15 million to settle defamation lawsuit filed by President-elect Donald Trump. This is according to court documents published on Saturday, to which the AFP agency referred.
Trump sued ABC News and its anchor George Stephanopoulos for inaccurate statements he made during an interview with Congresswoman Nancy Mace that aired in March. The host then claimed that Trump had been found “guilty of raping” writer E. Jean Carroll in a civil lawsuit.
The out-of-court settlement came just a day after Judge Lisette M. Reid asked both Trump and Stephanopoulos to testify. The terms of the deal require ABC News to donate $15 million to a fund designated for a “presidential foundation and museum” for Trump.
At the same time, the TV station and the presenter will publicly apologize and state that they “regret the statements” made about Trump during the aforementioned interview. ABC News will also pay another million dollars in legal fees to Trump’s lawyer.
Trump was found guilty by a jury last year of sexually assaulting Carroll, which is a different crime than rape under New York law, AFP explained. At the same time, she ordered him to pay the writer five million dollars as compensation. In January of this year, a jury in another case decided that Trump should pay Carroll $83.3 million in damages for defamation. Trump appealed against both verdicts.
