The American television channel ABC will pay fifteen million dollars in damages to end defamation lawsuits launched by President-elect Donald Trump after comments made on air by a star presenter.
According to court documents made public on Saturday, the out-of-court transaction between the parties provides that this envelope will replenish a fund intended to finance “a presidential foundation and museum” dedicated to the Republican billionaire.
The latter had filed a complaint against ABC and George Stephanopoulos, accusing the journalist of having affirmed during an interview in March with Nancy Mace, elected to the United States Congress, that Donald Trump had been found “responsible for rape” during ‘a trial related to the E. Jean Carroll case.
He was indeed convicted in this procedure, in 2023, but for sexual assault. He was also ordered to pay the journalist and writer $85 million for defamation, against the backdrop of these rape accusations in the 1990s.
The agreement with ABC also stipulates that the channel and George Stephanopoulos must issue a public apology, specifying that they “regret the statements” about Donald Trump, and pay his legal costs to the tune of one million dollars.
Former advisor to Bill Clinton and veteran political journalist, George Stephanopoulos is a highly effective interviewer and a mainstay of ABC News.
He interviewed Barack Obama, Benjamin Netanyahu and Vladimir Putin and was chosen in July for an interview with President Joe Biden, at a time when the intellectual acuity of the candidate for a second term was seriously in doubt. Donald Trump derogatorily nicknamed him “Slopadopoulos,” calling him a “small, irritated man” and “the lowest, most malicious interviewer there is.”
