NEW YORK (AP) — 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 that is 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.
A Trump spokesperson declined comment.
Trump, Stephanopoulos and ABC executives signed the settlement agreement on Friday.
The document bore Trump’s bold, distinct signature and an electronic signature with the initials GRS in a space for Stephanopoulos’ name. Debra OConnell, the president of ABC News Group and Disney Entertainment Networks, also e-signed the agreement.
ABC News must transfer the $15 million for Trump's library to an escrow account that's being managed by Brito’s law firm within 10 days, according to the agreement. The network must also pay Brito’s legal fees within 10 days.
While sizeable, ABC's contribution to Trump's presidential library will likely cover just a fraction of the cost. Former President Barack Obama's library in Chicago, for example, was estimated to cost $830 million as of 2021.
Trump sued ABC and Stephanopoulos in federal court in Miami days after the network aired the segment, in which the longtime “Good Morning America” anchor and “This Week” host repeatedly misstated the verdicts in Carroll’s two civil lawsuits against Trump.
During a live “This Week” interview with Rep. Nancy Mace, R-S.C., Stephanopoulos wrongly claimed that Trump had been “found liable for rape” and “defaming the victim of that rape.”
Neither verdict involved a finding of rape as defined under New York law.
In the first of the lawsuits to go to trial, Trump was found liable last year of sexually assaulting and defaming Carroll. A jury ordered him to pay her $5 million.
In January, at a second trial in federal court in Manhattan, Trump was found liable on additional defamation claims and ordered to pay Carroll $83.3 million.
Trump is appealing both verdicts.
Carroll, a former advice columnist, went public in a 2019 memoir with her allegation that Trump raped her in the mid-1990s at Bergdorf Goodman, a luxury Manhattan department store across the street from Trump Tower, after they crossed paths at an entrance.
Trump denied her claim, saying he didn't know Carroll and never ran into her at the store.
After Trump lashed out, calling Carroll a “nut job” who invented “a fraudulent and false story” to sell her memoir, she sued him for unspecified monetary damages and sought a retraction of what she said were Trump’s defamatory denials.
Testifying in April 2023, Carroll told jurors: “I’m here because Donald Trump raped me, and when I wrote about it, he said it didn’t happen. He lied and shattered my reputation, and I’m here to try and get my life back."
After she'd agreed to help Trump shop for a gift for a woman, Carroll testified that he pushed her against a dressing room wall, stamped his mouth onto hers, yanked down her tights and shoved his hand and then his penis inside her while she struggled against him.
She said she finally kneed him off her and fled.
In upholding the $5 million judgment in the first trial, U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan wrote that the unanimous verdict was almost entirely in favor of Carroll, except that the jury concluded she had failed to prove that Trump raped her “within the narrow, technical meaning of a particular section of the New York Penal Law.”
Kaplan, who presided over both of Carroll's lawsuits against Trump, said the definition of rape in the state code was “far narrower” than how rape is defined in common modern parlance, in some dictionaries, in some federal and state criminal statutes and elsewhere.
Under New York law, a rape finding requires vaginal penetration by a penis. Forcible penetration without consent of the vagina or other bodily orifices by fingers or anything else is labeled “sexual abuse.”
The judge said the verdict did not mean that Carroll “failed to prove that Mr. Trump ‘raped’ her as many people commonly understand the word ‘rape.’ Indeed ... the jury found that Mr. Trump in fact did exactly that.”
Associated Press writers Jill Colvin and Zeke Miller contributed to this report.
President-elect Donald Trump, left, and Vice President-elect JD Vance attend the NCAA college football game between Army and Navy at Northwest Stadium in Landover, Md., Saturday, Dec. 14, 2024. (AP Photo/Stephanie Scarbrough)
AQABA, Jordan (AP) — U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken has wrapped up perhaps his last Middle East visit as America’s top diplomat, with the aim of preventing Syria from spiraling out of control after the sudden ouster of President Bashar Assad.
Blinken was one of several senior U.S. officials traveling across the region in the Biden administration’s final weeks amid deep uncertainty in Washington and abroad over how Donald Trump will approach the Mideast when he takes office on Jan. 20, 2025.
Blinken held meetings Jordan, Turkey and Iraq with the aim of trying to shape the future of post-Assad Syria by forging consensus among regional partners and allies whose interests often diverge.
“We know that what happens inside of Syria can have powerful consequences well beyond its borders, from mass displacement to terrorism," he told reporters Saturday in Aqaba, Jordan. "And we know that we can’t underestimate the challenges of this moment.”
The primary goal of his 11 previous trips to the region since the Israel-Hamas war began in October 2023 was securing a ceasefire in Gaza that resulted in the release of remaining hostages.
Now, suddenly, that wasn't his priority and was being handled by President Joe Biden's national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, who traveled to Israel, Egypt and Qatar this past week. Blinken said he used his own meetings to press forward on a ceasefire deal.
Biden's team is running out of time to cement a legacy in the Middle East after drawing widespread criticism that it turned a blind eye to Israel’s military conduct and its treatment of civilians in Gaza. They did succeed in helping lead a push for a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon that, while tenuous, is holding.
Here are some takeaways from Blinken's trip:
While hopes remain for concluding a Gaza ceasefire by the time Biden leaves the White House, helping shape a new Syria may prove to be lower-hanging fruit.
Blinken left Washington just three days after Assad fled for Russia, a longtime ally. Blinken said his goal was to convince countries in the Mideast and elsewhere that they should commit to backing the U.S. view of how Syria should be run after decades of Assad family rule.
To that end, he said he had secured the backing of the 12 foreign ministers from the Arab League, Turkey and top officials from the European Union and United Nations who held an emergency meeting Saturday on Syria in the Jordanian port city of Aqaba.
They agreed that the new Syrian government should respect the rights of minorities and women, prevent terror groups from taking hold, ensure humanitarian aid reaches people in need, and secure and destroy any remaining Assad-era chemical weapons.
Blinken has promised that the United States would recognize and support a new government that met those principles.
Syria is riven by partisan and sectarian infighting that led in part to rise of the Islamic State militant group in the first place.
Turkey, Syria’s neighbor to the north, is deeply suspicious of Syrian and Iraqi Kurds. Turkey deems them terrorists, although some of those Kurds have proved to be key American partners in the fight to destroy IS.
The U.S. helped broker an agreement between the Turks and one of those Kurdish groups, the Syrian Defense Forces, after Assad’s departure, although it’s unclear how long that can last.
“We have the urgency of now,” Blinken said Saturday. “The urgency of now is to ensure that the success that we’ve had in ending the territorial caliphate of ISIS ... remains a critical mission," he said, using a different acronym for the group.
The SDF runs detention facilities holding some 10,000 fighters, and Blinken said its role is key because "this is a moment of instability in which ISIS will seek to regroup and take advantage of.”
Just after Assad's downfall, the U.S. struck about 75 IS targets in the Syrian desert in an effort to prevent the group from gaining a foothold. The U.S. also has about 900 troops in Syria to battle the group.
There are concerns in the region about how the incoming Trump administration will handle the Middle East, apart from deepening ties with Israel.
Trump has demanded the immediate release of hostages in Gaza, threatening on social media that otherwise there would be “HELL TO PAY,” and has urged the U.S. not to get involved in Syria.
Nonetheless, current U.S. officials believe the Republican is unlikely to abandon American military positions in Syria, as he had wanted to do during his first term. Their belief stems from the fact that Trump frequently takes credit for vanquishing IS by finishing the liberation of their territory that began during the Obama administration.
The threat of the possible return of IS would be too great for Trump risk, according to these officials. They say Iraq, which signed an agreement with the U.S. in September under which the U.S.-led anti-IS coalition will withdraw next year, is already hinting that conditions could force a change in that timetable.
On a Gaza ceasefire and hostage release deal, Sullivan expressed cautious optimism that conditions were ripe for halting the long-running conflict before the Biden administration's end.
“I wouldn’t be here now if I didn’t think this thing was just waiting until after Jan. 20,” he said this week.
Sullivan also said there has been good cooperation with the incoming Trump administration, with widespread agreement between them.
Sullivan headed back to Washington on Saturday after holding talks with Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi. But he left behind White House senior adviser Brett McGurk to continue talks in the region on reaching a deal to free some 100 hostages, about a third who Israeli officials believe are dead, that remain in captivity in Gaza.
The Biden administration has made it a priority to find Austin Tice, an American journalist believed held in Syria for more than a decade. Since Assad’s ouster, the U.S. has redoubled efforts to find Tice and return him home.
Blinken said Saturday that the U.S. has been in direct contact with the rebels that ousted Assad, including about “the importance of helping find Austin Tice and bringing him home.”
Washington’s top hostage negotiator, Roger Carstens, traveled to Lebanon this week in hopes of getting information on Tice.
Meanwhile, U.S. officials said Friday that another American, Travis Timmerman, was transported by the U.S. military out of Syria, where he had disappeared seven months ago into Assad's prison system. Timmerman was among the thousands released this week.
Officials say Timmerman, 29, was flown to Jordan on a U.S. military helicopter Friday, and it’s unclear where he may go next. He was detained after he crossed into Syria from Lebanon while on a Christian pilgrimage in June.
Qatar's Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim al-Thani, Turkey's Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, UN Special Envoy for Syria Geir Pedersen, UAE Foreign Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed al-Nahyan and others attend the meeting of the Arab Contact Group on Syria in Jordan's southern Red Sea coastal city of Aqaba, Saturday Dec. 14, 2024. (Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/Pool via AP)
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken delivers a statement to the press after the meeting with the foreign ministers of the Arab Contact Group on Syria in Jordan's southern Red Sea coastal city of Aqaba, Saturday Dec. 14, 2024. (Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/Pool via AP)
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken delivers a statement to the press after the meeting with the foreign ministers of the Arab Contact Group on Syria in Jordan's southern Red Sea coastal city of Aqaba, Saturday Dec. 14, 2024. (Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/Pool via AP)
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken speaks to members of the trip and staff from the US Embassy in Jordan before boarding his plane in Aqaba on Saturday, Dec. 14, 2024. (Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/Pool Photo via AP)
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken delivers a statement to the press after the meeting with the foreign ministers of the Arab Contact Group on Syria in Jordan's southern Red Sea coastal city of Aqaba, Saturday Dec. 14, 2024. (Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/Pool via AP)
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken leaves after delivering a statement to the press after the meeting with the foreign ministers of the Arab Contact Group on Syria in Jordan's southern Red Sea coastal city of Aqaba, Saturday Dec. 14, 2024. (Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/Pool via AP)
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, second left, is welcomed by US officials upon landing in Baghdad, Iraq, Friday, Dec. 13, 2024. (Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/Pool Photo via AP)
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken looks on while riding in a helicopter on the way back from the US Embassy headquarters to Baghdad airport ahead of his departure on Friday, Dec. 13, 2024. (Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/Pool Photo via AP)
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken waves farewell as he boards his plane in Aqaba, Jordan, on Saturday, Dec. 14, 2024. (Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/Pool Photo via AP)
Turkey's Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan, left, speaks with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken during a meeting with the foreign ministers of the Arab Contact Group on Syria in Jordan's southern Red Sea coastal city of Aqaba, Saturday Dec. 14, 2024. (Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/Pool via AP)
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken waits to disembark from a plane in Jordan's Red Sea resort of Aqaba, on Friday, Dec. 13, 2024. (Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/Pool Photo via AP)
