ABC News has agreed to pay $15 million to settle a defamation lawsuit brought by President-elect Donald Trump, ending the dispute over anchor George Stephanopoulos’ wrongly asserting on air that Mr. Trump was found liable for raping a woman in New York.
Under the agreement, ABC News and Mr. Stephanopoulos also published a statement saying they “regret” the remark about Mr. Trump.
The money will be transferred to an escrow account managed by Mr. Trump’s lawyer, Alejandro Brito, and it will go toward the president-elect’s presidential library, according to the legal filing made public on Saturday.
The network must transfer the funds within 10 days and are also on the hook for Mr. Brito’s $1 million in attorney fees.
The payment will be considered a “charitable contribution,” according to the filing.
Mr. Trump’s suit against the network stemmed from on-air comments made by Mr. Stephanopoulos during a March interview on “This Week” with Rep. Nancy Mace, South Carolina Republican.
The anchor incorrectly claimed that Mr. Trump had been “found liable for rape” and “defaming the victim of that rape” in the civil lawsuits brought against him by author E. Jean Carroll.
In Ms. Carroll’s first lawsuit against Mr. Trump, the president-elect was found liable for sexually assaulting and defaming her, and a jury ordered him to pay her $5 million.
Earlier this year, Mr. Trump was found liable on additional defamation claims against Ms. Carroll and was ordered to pay her $83.3 million. He is appealing both verdicts.
Neither verdict involved a finding of rape as defined under New York law.
The network has since added an editor’s note on a story about Mr. Stephanopolous’ interview with Ms. Mace, which read, “ABC News and George Stephanopoulos regret statements regarding President Donald J. Trump.”
The settlement agreement was signed Friday, the same day a Florida federal judge ordered Mr. Trump and Mr. Stephanopoulos to sit for separate depositions in the case. The settlement means that sworn testimony is no longer required.
“We are pleased that the parties have reached an agreement to dismiss the lawsuit on the terms in the court filing,” said ABC News spokesperson Jeannie Kedas.
A Trump spokesperson declined to comment.
The agreement bore Mr. Trump’s bold, distinct signature and an electronic signature with the initials GRS in a space for Mr. Stephanopoulos’ name. Debra OConnell, the president of ABC News Group and Disney Entertainment Networks, also e-signed the agreement.
Ms. Carroll, a former advice columnist, went public in a 2019 memoir with her allegation that Mr. Trump raped her in the mid-1990s at Bergdorf Goodman, a luxury Manhattan department store across the street from Trump Tower, after they crossed paths at an entrance.
Mr. Trump denied her claim, saying he didn’t know Ms. Carroll and never ran into her at the store.
After Mr. Trump lashed out, calling Ms. Carroll a “nut job” who invented “a fraudulent and false story” to sell her memoir, she sued him for unspecified monetary damages and sought a retraction of what she said were Mr. Trump’s defamatory denials.
• This article includes wire service reports.
• Alex Miller can be reached at amiller@washingtontimes.com.
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