Wow: ABC Coughs Up $16M — And An Apology — to Settle Trump Defamation Suit

Which part of this monster settlement will hurt more — the $16 million or the apology? One has to suspect that the money will hurt more for ABC News, but the admission that George Stephanopolous lied about Donald Trump will stick in the skin of their anchor more:

ABC News has agreed to contribute $15 million to Donald Trump’s presidential foundation or museum to settle a defamation lawsuit filed by the president-elect against the network and its star anchor George Stephanopoulos.

Stephanopoulos said on air earlier this year that the president-elect had been found civilly liable for raping writer E. Jean Carroll. A federal jury determined Trump was liable for sexual abuse.

Along with the contribution, ABC will pay $1 million in legal fees to Trump’s lawyer.

In addition Disney-owned ABC News will post a note on its website expressing regret over Stephanopoulos’ inaccurate statement, which was made during a March 10 segment of “This Week,” according to a court filing made public Saturday. 

In fact, the jury specifically found that Trump did not rape Carroll. That didn’t keep Stephanopoulos from claiming that the verdict in the civil trial meant Trump had raped Carroll, and ABC didn’t retract the story even after the lie was pointed out. Nor were they the only mainstream media outlet to make that claim, a point to which we’ll return in a moment. 

Just the fact that ABC — Disney in reality — agreed to shell out $16 million to settle this speaks volumes as to the violation. How difficult is it for a politician to actually win a defamation suit? The Supreme Court made it all but impossible in Sullivan, although Clarence Thomas has now written on at least one occasion that the court should rethink that standard as applied to other “public persons.” The mainstream media has pushed that envelope hard in the Trump era, however; they have published hyperbole at the very least, if not flat-out falsehoods, in their desperation to thwart Trump’s political ambitions. 

You’d better believe that ABC News figured that Stephanopoulos pushed it too far. There’s no way they’d pay out $16 million unless their attorneys warned them that the trial would likely cost them a lot more in the end. That’s especially true when the settlement vindicates a bete noire like Trump. 

ABC may not be the last to cough up cash and apologies, as Hugh Hewitt pointed out, especially now that the attorneys just scored a cool million in Disneybucks:

Since ABC and George Stephanopoulos apologized to President-elect Trump —and paid a hefty sum to avoid a libel judgment — the question becomes which other media outlets have made the same accusation time and again? Think they need to notice their insurers of a possible claim or…

— Hugh Hewitt (@hughhewitt) December 15, 2024

Think they need to notice their insurers of a possible claim or run risk of forfeiting coverage? Think Team @realDonaldTrump is running deep dives into who used the same language that George S. used? Sending document retention notices. Those lawyers for 45-47 had their fees paid. They know what the targets are next: Every media organization that used the same formulation as ABC did.

That million dollars pays for a lot of research and court filings. And it pays for a lot of “fake news” swag, too.