Rachel Maddow’s Lies Costs NBCUniversal Millions in Defamation Settlement [WATCH]

NBCUniversal has agreed to settle a $30 million defamation lawsuit filed by Georgia gynecologist Dr. Mahendra Amin after MSNBC hosts, including Rachel Maddow, falsely accused him of performing unnecessary hysterectomies on immigrant detainees at a Georgia detention center.

Dr. Amin filed the lawsuit in September 2021 after multiple MSNBC personalities, including Maddow, Chris Hayes, and Nicole Wallace, aired reports falsely alleging that he had performed “mass hysterectomies” on detainees at the Irwin County Detention Center in Ocilla, Georgia.

NBC Universal has agreed to settle a $30m defamation lawsuit after its MSNBC talent lied and said a Georgia doctor was performing Mengele-style “mass hysterectomies” at an ICE facility during the first Trump administration.@chrislhayes, Rachel @maddow, Nicole Wallace, and… pic.twitter.com/zLLNcfmUHU

— Andy Ngo (@MrAndyNgo) February 22, 2025

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The claims were originally brought forward by nurse Dawn Wooten, who later admitted they were false.

Documents filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Georgia on Thursday confirmed that NBCUniversal has agreed to settle the case.

A notice stated that “the parties are diligently working to finalize the language of the settlement agreement.”

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This follows a July ruling by Judge Lisa Godbey Wood, who found that Maddow, Hayes, and Wallace made 39 “verifiably false” statements about Amin.

The ruling allowed the case to proceed toward trial before settlement talks began.

The lawsuit stemmed from reports aired in September 2020 in which MSNBC and NBC News hosts promoted Wooten’s accusations without verifying the claims.

Maddow, during her broadcast, repeated Wooten’s allegations, saying:

“The nurse says she and her fellow nurses, quote, questioned among ourselves like, ‘Goodness – he’s taking everybody’s stuff out. That’s his specialty, he’s the uterus collector.’”

Maddow also cited reporting from NBC News correspondents Jacob Soboroff and Julia Ainsley, who claimed that multiple lawyers representing detained women had raised similar concerns.

However, during legal discovery, internal NBCU communications revealed that even some of their own reporters doubted Wooten’s credibility.

In one instance, NBCUniversal’s deputy director of standards, Chris Scholl, raised skepticism about Wooten’s claims.

According to notes released in the legal filings, Scholl stated during a conference call with Hayes that Wooten “has no direct knowledge of this stuff” and may have a “beef” with the facility.

“We just don’t know if any of this is true,” Scholl reportedly said. Hayes responded: “Right, right, right, right.”

Despite these internal doubts, MSNBC and NBC News continued pushing the allegations, with Hayes later airing a second segment on the subject.

Wallace also hosted Ainsley on Deadline: White House to discuss the unverified claims.

The lawsuit revealed how NBCUniversal’s failure to verify Wooten’s claims led to the widespread defamation of Dr. Amin.

The reporting sparked protests against the ICE facility, with activists comparing it to a “concentration camp.” The case also fueled political debates, as it aired just weeks before the 2020 presidential election.

Judge Wood’s ruling in July found that NBCUniversal’s statements about Amin were not only false but had caused severe reputational damage.

Amin’s lawsuit accused MSNBC and its hosts of falsely portraying him as “an abusive, unethical, and dishonest physician” who performed surgeries “without consent” and for profit.

The NBCU settlement comes amid broader scrutiny of corporate media’s reporting practices.

Days earlier, CNN agreed to settle a separate defamation lawsuit filed by an Army veteran who was falsely accused of profiting from the Biden administration’s botched Afghanistan withdrawal.

Meanwhile, Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairman Brendan Carr recently announced a federal investigation into Comcast and NBCUniversal’s diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives.

Additionally, Comcast is in the process of restructuring its media operations. A new company, SpinCo, has been created to separate MSNBC, CNBC, and several entertainment channels from NBC News.

Under the restructuring, MSNBC and CNBC will move to SpinCo, while Comcast will retain NBCUniversal’s primary news assets.

While the terms of NBCUniversal’s settlement with Dr. Amin have not been disclosed, the case serves as another example of corporate media failing to verify allegations before airing them to millions of viewers.

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