ABC News is facing backlash from both Democrats and Republicans following its $15-million settlement with Donald Trump.
In a settlement announced on Saturday, ABC News agreed to pay $15 million toward Donald Trump‘s presidential library and issue a public apology in order to settle a defamation lawsuit over inaccurate statements made by anchor George Stephanopoulos during a broadcast earlier this year.
The settlement describes the funding as a “charitable contribution” from the broadcaster. Additionally, the network will pay $1 million in legal fees to Trump’s attorneys.
Trump filed the defamation suit after Stephanopoulos claimed during a March 10 segment of ABC News’ This Week while interviewing Representative Nancy Mace, a South Carolina Republican, that Trump had been “found liable for rape” in connection to writer E. Jean Carroll’s lawsuits. Neither verdict involved a finding of rape as defined under New York law.
Following the settlement, which came just days after U.S. Magistrate Judge Lisette Reid ordered the president-elect and Stephanopoulos to submit to four-hour depositions, ABC News is facing backlash from both sides of the aisle.
“People are not going to forget what ABC did,” the Republicans Against Trump X, formerly Twitter, account said.
Conservative political scientist Norman Jay Ornstein added: “Add ABC to the basket of cowards in our media.”
Democratic attorney Marc Elias wrote: “Knee bent. Ring kissed. Another legacy news outlet chooses obedience.”
Reporter Oliver Willis also chimed in, writing on Threads: “This is actually how democracy dies.”
Tech reporter Matt Novak said: “Not good for the rest of us when you do this s***, ABC.”
“But that’s probably half the point from management’s perspective,” he added Saturday.
Legal experts also criticized the broadcaster for settling the lawsuit before depositions were due to take place.
Former prosecutor Joyce Vance said: “I’m old enough to remember—and to have worked on—cases where newspapers vigorously defended themselves against defamation cases instead of folding before the defendant was even deposed.”
“That, by the way, includes defamation cases brought by candidates for the presidency,” she then added.
Legal analyst Allison Gill, known online as Mueller, She Wrote, said: “This is so gross.”
“And it keeps happening. Why not depose him?” she asked. “The case wouldn’t cost more than $15M and ABC would have won if they bothered fighting.”
The analyst then added, “I don’t get it.”
Human rights lawyer Qasim Rashid said: “This is the cowardice of legacy media out to make profit, rather than uphold principle. The ongoing failure of legacy media is a stark reminder that independent and independently funded voices are now more critical than ever before.”
In a statement, a spokesperson for ABC News said: “We are pleased that the parties have reached an agreement to dismiss the lawsuit on the terms in the court filing.”
Newsweek contacted ABC News and Trump representatives for further comment outside of normal working hours.
The case stems from two previous verdicts involving E. Jean Carroll. In 2023, Trump was found liable for sexually abusing and defaming Carroll and was ordered to pay her $5 million. In January, he was ordered to pay Carroll $83.3 million on additional defamation claims. He is appealing both verdicts and has denied any wrongdoing.
When upholding the judgment in the first trial, Judge Lewis A. Kaplan wrote that the jury found Carroll had failed to prove that Trump raped her “within the narrow, technical meaning of a particular section of the New York Penal Law.”
“The definition of rape in the New York Penal Law is far narrower than the meaning of ‘rape’ in common modern parlance, its definition in some dictionaries, in some federal and state criminal statutes, and elsewhere,” he wrote.
However, Kaplan emphasized this did not mean Carroll “failed to prove that Mr. Trump ‘raped’ her as many people commonly understand the word ‘rape.’”
In July, ABC News and Stephanopoulos attempted to dismiss the Trump’s lawsuit based on Kaplan’s remarks, which they argued meant the rape claim was “substantially true.” The motion was rejected in federal court.
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