The United States (U.S.) television network ABC has agreed to pay 15 million dollars to Donald Trump’s presidential library as part of a settlement in his defamation lawsuit against ABC.
Host George Stephanopoulos repeatedly stated during the March episode of ABC’s This Week that Trump had been found guilty of raping journalist E. Jean Carroll in court.
Trump sued Stephanopoulos and ABC for defamation, claiming they misrepresented the court verdict in the lawsuits Carroll had filed against him.
Carroll alleged that Trump raped her in a department store in the mid–1990s and defamed her by denying the accusation.
Last year, Trump was found liable in court for sexually abusing Carroll and ordered to pay her 5 million dollars in damages. In January, he was also found liable in an additional defamation lawsuit, for which he is required to pay 83.3 million dollars.
However, none of the verdicts included rape as defined under New York state law.
Judge Lewis Kaplan, who presided over both cases, stated that the jury concluded Carroll had not proven rape “under the narrow, technical definition of rape in New York’s criminal law.”
Kaplan noted, however, that New York’s legal definition of rape is “far narrower” than how the term is defined in common modern usage, in some dictionaries, and in certain federal and state criminal statutes.
According to settlement documents released Saturday, ABC and Stephanopoulos will also issue a statement of regret concerning Trump’s lawsuit and pay 1 million dollars in legal fees to Trump’s lawyer.
ABC stated it was “pleased that the parties have reached an agreement to dismiss the lawsuit under the terms outlined in the court filing.”
U.S. media reports describe the settlement as a significant concession by ABC and a rare victory for a politician whose previous lawsuits against news outlets often ended in defeat, Klix.ba writes.
