Trump Settles Defamation with ABC News

After the E. Jean Carroll case had concluded, ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos told Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.) that Trump had been convicted of rape, but that was not true.

Trump wound up suing George Stephanopoulos and ABC News over the report, a case which was just settled for $16 million.

George Stephanopoulos Mistake

Carroll has sued Donald Trump in civil court over an alleged sexual assault that she says took place in a department store many years ago.

Her details of the event were sketchy, and while the jury did not find Trump guilty of rape, they did say that he was guilty of sexual abuse.

Even so, George Stephanopoulos stated, "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.”

Juries did not find Trump guilty of rape, as we noted before, but a judge did make a comment after a verdict, stating that Carroll had failed to prove rape "within the meaning of the New York Penal Law does not mean that she failed to prove that Mr. Trump ‘raped’ her as many people commonly understand the word ‘rape.’"

The Case Can Move Forward

After Trump filed the defamation suit, ABC News immediately tried to have the case dismissed, but U.S. District Judge Cecilia Altonaga ruled that the suit could push forward.

In her ruling, she stated, "Here, a reasonable viewer — especially one who was aware that Plaintiff had been charged with rape under New York Penal Law — could have been misled by Stephanopoulos's statements, which did not include the jury's original findings and only fleetingly referenced the interpretation Judge Kaplan later offered.”

Trump obviously celebrated this as a big win against “fake news,” but I am not sure anyone really expected anything to come of this.

Then, over the weekend, it was announced that ABC News had reached a settlement with Trump.

Settlement Reached

This settlement tells me two things… ABC News was still worried about it, and Trump more than likely did not think he had a big win, even with the ruling from Judge Altonaga.

The settlement was for $16 million, $15 million of which is going to Trump’s presidential foundation and museum. The final $1 million is to reimburse Trump for his legal fees.

After the settlement, ABC News stated, "We are pleased that the parties have reached an agreement to dismiss the lawsuit on the terms in the court filing.”

Now, if Trump really wants to be a championship troll, when he does build his presidential library, he should use that $15 million to build a wing to document all the fake news stories told about him by the media and call it the ABC News-George Stephanopoulos Wing.