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| - On Dec. 14, 2024, posts circulated on X saying that ABC would pay $15 million to U.S. President-elect Donald Trump as part of a settlement in a defamation lawsuit involving "This Week" host George Stephanopoulos.
One such post (archived) read: "BREAKING: George Stephanopoulos and ABC apologize to Trump and agree to pay $15 million to settle defamation lawsuit."
(X user @bennyjohnson)
The claim centers on a case filed in March 2024, Trump v. American Broadcasting Companies Inc.
A document for this case showed that ABC settled for $15 million in payments to Trump's "Presidential foundation and museum," $1 million in fees to Trump's legal team and the addition of a statement to the news channel's original report. Therefore, we have rated this claim as true.
The lawsuit was filed at a district court in the Southern District of Florida on March 18, 2024, with the complaint reading:
More specifically, and as set forth in greater detail below, on Sunday, March 10, 2024, Defendant George Stephanopoulos, during the airing of his weekly television show, This Week With George Stephanopoulos, falsely stated on several occasions that Plaintiff had been found liable by multiple juries for the rape of Ms. E. Jean Carroll.
The final detail in the above passage refers to a jury in New York, on May 9, 2023, finding Trump liable for sexually abusing advice columnist E. Jean Carroll in 1996. However, in the process, the jury rejected Carroll's claim that she was raped.
The settlement between ABC and Trump was entered on Dec. 13, 2024. It bore the signatures of Trump, ABC representatives and the letters "GRS" in the space for Stephanopoulos' signature.
The settlement consisted of three main elements. The first was a $15 million "contribution" by ABC "to be made 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 …"
ABC also agreed to include the following statement in its March 10 article, which had been added at the time of this writing:
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.
Finally, ABC also agreed to pay $1 million in fees to Trump's counsel, Brito PLLC.
A widely reported statement from ABC commenting on the settlement read: "We are pleased that the parties have reached an agreement to dismiss the lawsuit on the terms in the court filing."
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