Donald Trump: ABC settles defamation suit for $US15 million

Staff Writers

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2 hours ago

President-elect Donald Trump has reached a settlement with ABC News after inaccurate on-air comments were made against the Republican. Credit: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

ABC News has agreed to pay $US15 million ($A24m) towards Donald Trump’s presidential library to settle a lawsuit over anchor George Stephanopoulos’ inaccurate on-air assertion that the president-elect had been found civilly liable for raping writer E Jean Carroll.

According to settlement documents made public on Saturday, ABC will also post a note on its website expressing regret over the claim in a March 10 segment on Mr Stephanopoulos’ This Week program and pay $US1 million ($A1.6m) in legal fees to Mr Trump’s lawyer.

In a statement, ABC News said: “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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Mr Trump sued Mr Stephanopoulos and ABC for defamation days after the anchor claimed during an interview with Republican Nancy Mace, that Mr Trump had been “found liable for rape”, which misstated the verdicts in Carroll’s two lawsuits against him.

Last year, Mr Trump was found liable for sexually assaulting and defaming Ms Carroll and was ordered to pay her $US5 million ($A7.9m).

In January, he was found liable on additional defamation claims and ordered to pay Ms Carroll $US83.3 million ($A131m). Mr Trump is appealing both verdicts.

Neither verdict involved a finding of rape as defined under New York law.

George Stephanopoulos' inaccurate on-air assertion prompted the defamation lawsuit. (AP PHOTO) Credit: AAP

The judge in both cases, Lewis Kaplan, has said that the jury’s conclusion was that Ms Carroll had failed to prove that Mr Trump raped her “within the narrow, technical meaning of a particular section of the New York Penal Law”.

Mr Kaplan noted that the definition of rape was “far narrower” than how rape is defined in common modern parlance, in some dictionaries, in some federal and state criminal statutes and elsewhere.

The judge said the verdict did not mean that Ms Carroll “failed to prove that Mr Trump ‘raped’ her as many people commonly understand the word ‘rape.’ Indeed ... the jury found that Mr Trump in fact did exactly that.”

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