Trump Lets George Stephanopoulos and ABC Off the Hook with Settlement

Donald Trump has come out of his defamation suit against George Stephanopoulos and ABC victorious.

It would appear, however, that Trump let them off the hook with minimal damage.

The settlement in the defamation suit was for $16 million, most of which is a donation to Trump’s presidential foundation and museum.

Getting Off Easy

The case all stems from comments by Stephanopoulos during an interview with Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.).

Stephanopoulos claimed that Trump had been found “liable for rape” in the E. Jean Carroll case, which was not actually true.

Stephanopoulos stated, "You've endorsed Donald Trump for president. Judges and two separate juries have found him liable for rape and for defaming the victim of that rape.”

The jury did find Trump liable for sexual abuse, but not rape. Judge Lewis Kaplan, however, had written after the case that Carroll failed to prove rape "within the meaning of the New York Penal Law does not mean that she failed to prove that Mr. Trump ‘raped’ her as many people commonly understand the word ‘rape.’"

That, however, was his opinion because the jury had spoken. The fact of the matter is that Trump was never convicted of rape, so the defamation suit was permitted by the courts to move forward.

Stephanopoulos initially pushed back on the lawsuit, filing a motion to dismiss, stating, "Trump sued me because I used the word ‘rape,’ even though a judge said that’s in fact what did happen. We filed a motion to dismiss.”

In essence, what Judge Kaplan said was the equivalent of water cooler gossip and had nothing at all to do with the actual jury verdict.

Once the motion to dismiss was defeated and the court said the case could move on, ABC News apparently looked to get past this as quickly as possible.

So, ABC News is now paying $15 million to the presidential foundation and $1 million to Trump for his legal fees.

After Trump had agreed to the settlement, ABC News stated, "We are pleased that the parties have reached an agreement to dismiss the lawsuit on the terms in the court filing.”

When Stephanopoulos went on air after the settlement, he never even mentioned that the case had been settled between the two parties.

Trump has another case pending with CBS News for $10 billion for “deceptive conduct” for how the Kamala Harris interview was conducted, claiming it was election interference.