ABC is paying a hefty price for its Trump Derangement Syndrome and for the claims of its Democrat Party George Stephanopoulos.
The network was ordered Friday to pay $15 million to President-elect Donald Trump’s presidential library fund to bail out big-mouth anchor George Stephanopoulos for his false assertions that Trump had been found liable for raping writer E. Jean Carroll, according to the terms of the settlement signed Friday.
Be informed, not misled.
ABC News has agreed to pay $15 million toward Donald Trump’s presidential library to settle a defamation lawsuit over anchor George Stephanopoulos’ inaccurate on-air assertion that the president-elect had been found civilly liable for raping writer E. Jean Carroll.
As part of the settlement made public Saturday, ABC News posted an editor’s note to its website expressing regret over Stephanopoulos’ statements during a March 10 segment on his “This Week” program. The network will also pay $1 million in legal fees to the law firm of Trump’s attorney, Alejandro Brito.
The settlement agreement describes ABC’s presidential library payment as a “charitable contribution,” with the money earmarked for a non-profit organization being established in connection with the yet-to-be-built library.
“We are pleased that the parties have reached an agreement to dismiss the lawsuit on the terms in the court filing,” ABC News spokesperson Jeannie Kedas said.
The Federalist said this yesterday:
ABC News weasels simply added an editor’s note at the bottom of a March 10, 2024 story headlined, “Nancy Mace defends her support for Trump after he was found liable for sexual assault.” They had no choice. The settlement demanded it.
“Editor’s Note: 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,” the suspect apology states.
The story and Stephanopoulos badgered the South Carolina Republican congresswoman for her support of Trump, who in a May 2023 civil case was found liable for sexually abusing Carroll decades ago.
The jury in a trial that reeked of politics in another New York kangaroo court rejected Carroll’s claim that she was raped in a posh Manhattan department store. Stephanopoulos repeatedly and falsely said Trump had been “found liable for rape” during a March interview with Mace on ABC’s “This Week.”
Trump, who was at the time the leading candidate for the GOP’s presidential nomination and hounded by political prosecutions aimed at knocking the Democrats’ top political enemy out of the race, quickly filed a defamation lawsuit accusing the ABC News anchor and former Clinton crony with “actual malice or with a reckless disregard for the truth.”
The irony
Interestingly, former Clinton White House Communications Director Stephanopoulos served as President Bill Clinton’s “point man orchestrating smear campaigns against Clinton’s accusers of sexual misconduct throughout the ’90s.”
During his tenure, Stephanopoulos led Clinton’s operation to discredit allegations of sexual harassment from Paula Jones, a former employee of Clinton’s from his time as governor who sued the president in 1994.
And there's this: According to the ABC defamation lawsuit settlement, the network must transfer the $15 million to an escrow account overseen by Alejandro Brito, Trump’s attorney. ABC also must pay Brito’s law firm $1 million.
According to the agreement, the money must arrive within 10 days, right before Christmas.
Be Informed. Be Discerning. Be Vigilant. Be Engaged. Be Encouraged. Be Prayerful.