Defamation Suit Settled
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ABC News settles defamation suit with Trump for $15 million
ABC News and George Stephanopoulos have reached a settlement with Donald Trump in his defamation suit. The network will pay $15 million to a charity and will issue an apology.
The settlement was filed publicly Saturday and reveals ABC will pay $15 million as a charitable contribution to a “presidential foundation and museum to be established by or for the Plaintiff.”
The network will also pay $1 million in Trump’s attorneys’ fees.
Trump filed the lawsuit in Florida federal court earlier this year, arguing that Stephanopoulos and ABC News defamed him when the anchor said 10 times during a contentious on-air interview with South Carolina GOP Rep. Nancy Mace in March that a jury found Trump had “raped” E. Jean Carroll.
Carroll alleged that Trump raped her in a department store in the mid-1990s and that he defamed her when he denied her claim. Trump has denied all wrongdoing toward Carroll.
In 2023, a jury found that Trump sexually abused her, sufficient to hold him liable for battery, though it did not find that Carroll proved he raped her. The jury awarded Carroll $5 million for batter and defamation. In January, Carroll was awarded an additional $83.3 million in damages for his defamatory statements disparaging her and denying her rape allegations.
The jury did not find that Carroll proved Trump had raped her. Instead, a judge concluded months later when dismissing Trump’s countersuit against Carroll that the claim Trump raped Carroll was “substantially true.” The judge wrote in August 2023 that Trump “raped” her in the broader sense of that word, as people generally understand it, though not as it is narrowly defined by New York state law.
In the lawsuit filed against ABC News in March, Trump claimed that Stephanopoulos’ statements were “false, intentional, malicious and designed to cause harm.”
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He's not a journalist. Never has been. He's a remnant of the Clinton Administration, working as a mouthpiece for the Dems at ABC.
Which is okay, as long as ABC frames him for what he is and labels his stuff as opinion or entertainment.
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He's not a journalist. Never has been. He's a remnant of the Clinton Administration, working as a mouthpiece for the Dems at ABC.
Which is okay, as long as ABC frames him for what he is and labels his stuff as opinion or entertainment.
@Jolly said in Defamation Suit Settled:
He's a remnant of the Clinton Administration
Remember "You'll never work in this town again!"?
Link to video -
Stephanipolos said ‘convicted’.
Adjudicated rapist may well be technically correct. I don’t know if ‘adjudicated’ has a precise legal definition.
@jon-nyc said in Defamation Suit Settled:
Adjudicated rapist may well be technically correct. I don’t know if ‘adjudicated’ has a precise legal definition.
https://thisvsthat.io/adjudication-vs-conviction
Adjudication and conviction are two distinct legal terms used in the criminal justice system. Adjudication refers to the process of resolving a legal dispute or determining the guilt or innocence of an accused individual through a formal hearing or trial. It involves the examination of evidence, presentation of arguments, and the decision-making by a judge or jury. On the other hand, conviction refers to the final outcome of the adjudication process, where a person is found guilty of a crime based on the evidence presented. It signifies that the accused has been proven beyond a reasonable doubt to have committed the offense and is subsequently sentenced according to the law. While adjudication is the broader process of legal resolution, conviction is the specific result that follows if guilt is established.
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So did a jury find Trump raped Carroll, or didn't it?
The answer has to do with what "rape" means.
Because the jurors rendered their May verdict in a civil case, they were asked only whether Carroll proved her allegation was probably true. In a criminal case, prosecutors would need to prove the allegation beyond a reasonable doubt.
Carroll testified that she struggled to get Trump off her as he shoved his mouth on hers, yanked her tights down, and penetrated her with his hand and then his penis. She described him curving his finger inside her, saying it was "extremely painful" and "a horrible feeling."
By responding "no" to the question of whether Carroll proved Trump raped her, the jurors indicated they weren't convinced Trump penetrated Carroll with his penis, according to Kaplan, who first wrote about the issue in July when he denied Trump a new trial in the sexual abuse case.
But the jurors' conclusion that Trump sexually abused Carroll "necessarily implies" that they did, in fact, believe he penetrated her with his fingers, Kaplan said.
Here was his reasoning:
Kaplan noted his instruction to the jury that, for Trump to have sexually abused Carroll, Trump needed to have touched her sexual or intimate parts. The only allegations from Carroll that could possibly fit that bill were forcible kissing, pulling down her tights, and vaginal penetration, he said.
But the jury couldn't find Trump sexually abused Carroll solely based on a nonconsensual kiss without ignoring testimony and accepting a version of events "contradicted by the overwhelming weight of the evidence," Kaplan said. He noted the kiss was less significant in Carroll's testimony: She said she thought she had laughed after it to throw cold water on anything further, and she hadn't described any physical pain or lasting trauma from it.
Kaplan has also pointed to the size of the jury's sexual abuse award − more than $2 million − as bolstering his conclusion that the verdict was based on finding Trump forcibly penetrated Carroll with his hand.
And that act, in common modern speech, is rape, Kaplan said.
As he later summed it up in August, when he dismissed Trump's countersuit: "It accordingly is the 'truth,' as relevant here, that Mr. Trump digitally raped Ms. Carroll
https://www.yahoo.com/news/did-donald-trump-rape-e-101132185.html
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He’s richer than ABC news. In fact he’s currently the richest office holder in the United States.
@jon-nyc said in Defamation Suit Settled:
He’s richer than ABC news.
Just saw this...
Is he richer than Disney? Who pushed for the settlement?
https://www.wsj.com/business/media/disney-donald-trump-lawsuit-abc-news-0ac69aec?mod=hp_lead_pos2
Disney’s decision to settle President-elect Donald Trump’s defamation lawsuit against ABC News was supposed to relieve the company of a major headache. Instead, it has set off an internal backlash.
Many rank and file journalists and producers at ABC News are frustrated by the company’s decision to resolve the suit, rather than fight in court Trump’s claims against the network and its anchor George Stephanopoulos. ABC agreed to pay $15 million to Trump’s future presidential foundation and museum, and $1 million in legal fees to Trump’s lawyer, according to a court filing made public Saturday.
Disney Chief Executive Bob Iger approved the settlement, which was recommended by Disney general counsel Horacio Gutierrez, according to people familiar with the matter. They settled after a scheduled mediation session last week; Stephanopoulos was set to be deposed this week.
Disney concluded that it was facing a tough court battle in Florida that could have ultimately proven costly not only to the company but to press freedom writ large, if they lost, the people said.
Several ABC News staffers said it was a concerning precedent for a media company, and worry that the settlement sends a message that Disney is giving priority to its corporate interests and relationship with the White House over its own journalists. Media lawyers have also raised questions about the deal.
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Megyn Kelly exclusive where she reveals comments from Trump's lawyers as to why they think ABC and George Stephanopoulos settled for 15 million:
Megyn Kelly: "Our Producer spoke with Trump's attorney, Alejandro Brito. And here is what he said. Our question was why did ABC decide to settle?
The long and short of it? Is the nature of the claims that were brought and the fact that they were verifiable from a standpoint as factually untrue from George Stephanopoulos.Trump's legal team had separate video clips of George Stephanopoulos on ABC that showed Stephanopoulos knew that Trump had not been found liable for rape."
"Was there something this is us in discovery that scared ABC into settling."
"Answer the possibility of something coming out in discovery may have had led to the settlement.Trump legal team had scheduled to take the deposition of ABC and ABC Rep and George Stephanopoulos. The lawyer, suspects ABC did not want it to happen.
Quote, It wasn't something ABC learned that caused them to settle, but rather something Trump's team may learn.
Trump team was waiting on ABC and Stephanopoulos to respond to discovery demands. He said At the time of the settlement, ABC had only produced one piece of paper and, quote, very interesting and not provided any other documentation.
And he believes fear of what Trump could learn about ABC and Stephanopoulos and document exchange may have played a role in the settlement."
