ABC News and President-elect Donald Trump reached a $15 million settlement on Saturday after This Week host George Stephanopoulos falsely accused Trump of being found “liable for rape” in the E. Jean Carroll case.
The incident in question occurred on March 10 when Stephanopoulos was interviewing GOP Rep. Nancy Mace and asked, “You’ve endorsed Donald Trump for president. Judges and two separate juries have found him liable for rape and for defaming the victim of that rape. How do you square your endorsement of Donald Trump with the testimony we just saw?”
After Mace, a rape survivor herself, accused Stephanopoulos of trying to rape shame her, Stephanopoulos doubled down, “Donald Trump has been found liable for rape by a jury. Donald Trump has been found liable for defaming the victim of that rape by a jury. It’s been affirmed by a judge.”
Now, ABC will have to donate $15 million to the future Trump Presidential Library and add an editor’s note to the March 10 article that 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.”
The move comes as Trump and Stephanopoulos were ordered to sit down for four-hour depositions next week.