Anchor George Stephanopoulos and his network ABC News reached a settlement with Donald Trump in his defamation lawsuit.
The settlement publicly filed on Saturday revealed that the two parties have come to an agreement to avoid a costly trial.
ABC News will pay $15 million as a charitable contribution to a “Presidential foundation and museum to be established by or for Plaintiff, as Presidents of the United States of America have established in the past.”
Stephanopoulos and ABC News also had to issue statements of “regret” to the bottom of a May, 2024 article that prompted Trump to file his defamation lawsuit.
“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.”
BREAKING: George Stephanopoulos and ABC are forced to apologize to President Trump and pay $15 million to settle a defamation suit.
— Charlie Kirk (@charliekirk11) December 14, 2024
Trump filed a defamation suit against Stephanopoulos after the anchor and former Democrat operative asserted that Trump was found "liable for… pic.twitter.com/6FLJRCMMIW
ABC News said it was “pleased” that the case was concluded.
“We are pleased that the parties have reached an agreement to dismiss the lawsuit on the terms in the court filing,” an ABC News spokesperson told Fox News Digital.
The settlement came after U.S. Magistrate Judge Lisette M. Reid ordered Trump and Stephanopoulos on Friday to sit for depositions next week ahead of the Dec. 24 deadline for the defendants to file a motion for summary judgment in order to avoid a trial.
Trump filed the defamation suit against Stephanopoulos after he repeatedly claimed that Trump was found “liable for rape” in a civil case during a heated interview with Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.) last March.
A nine-member New York jury in May 2023 found Trump liable for sexual battery and defaming accuser E. Jean Carroll, and granted her an award of $5 million in damages. 80-year-old Carroll alleged that Trump raped her at the Bergdorf Goodman department store across the street from Trump Tower in Manhattan sometime in 1996.