President-elect Donald Trump has settled his defamation lawsuit against ABC News and George Stephanopoulos, as the news organization and Stephanopoulos have agreed to publicly apologize and ABC News will donate $15 million to a presidential foundation (which is often a presidential library or museum). The organization will also pay $1 million of Trump’s legal fees as part of the settlement.
“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,” Stephanopoulos and ABC News said in a statement.
Trump filed his lawsuit against ABC News and Stephanopoulos in March. The federal suit followed a heated discussion with Congresswoman Nancy Mace in which Stephanopoulos questioned Mace, an outspoken survivor of rape, about her endorsement of Trump.
“You’ve endorsed Donald Trump for president,” Stephanopoulos told Mace. “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—” he continued before Mace interjected, “It was not a criminal court case, number one.”
“Number two, I live with shame. And you’re asking me a question about my political choices, trying to shame me as a rape victim — I find it disgusting, and quite frankly, E. Jean Carroll’s comments when she did get the judgment joking about what she was going to buy, it doesn’t… it makes it harder for women to come forward when they make a mockery out of rape,” Mace also said.
Mace continued in that vein and concluded, “I had to tell my story, because no other woman was coming towards me, no rape victims were represented, and you’re trying to shame me this morning. I’m just— I find it offensive and this is why women won’t come forward.”
The pair’s back and forth was about author E. Jean Carroll’s own lawsuit against Trump. Carroll accused Trump of rape, and a Manhattan jury found Trump liable for sexual battery and defamation. Judge Lewis Kaplan later clarified the ruling came down to New York’s limited legal definition of “rape” and said that it did not mean Carroll “failed to prove that Mr. Trump ‘raped’ her as many people commonly understand the word ‘rape.’”
Stephanopoulos initially appeared unthreatened by Trump’s lawsuit. He told Stephen Colbert in May, “[Mace] famously started her political career… when she was in the statehouse, talking about being a victim of rape. And so, I asked her, as a victim of rape, how she could support someone who a jury has found liable for rape.”
“Trump sued me because I used the word ‘rape,’ even though a judge said that’s in fact what did happen,” he also said.
This isn’t the only recent legal win for Trump. In November, Federal Judge Tanya Chutkan granted special counsel Jack Smith’s request to dismiss Trump’s federal election interference case.
Trump was indicted in two federal cases, both brought by Smith over a year ago. One was for his alleged interference in the 2020 election and the other was related to classified documents found at Mar-a-Lago that he reportedly refused to hand over.
He was re-elected to the presidency in November and will take office again in January.
