George Stephanopoulos comment that led ABC News to $15M lawsuit settlement with Trump seems to hold up: MSNBC host
An MSNBC host said ABC News anchor George Stephanopoulos’ comments that led President-elect Donald Trump to file a defamation lawsuit against the Disney-owned network “seems to hold up” — despite the fact that the company agreed to pay $15 million to settle the claim.Symone Sanders-Townsend, host of Sunday’s “The Weekend” talk show on Comcast’s left-leaning cable channel, said ABC News paying the settlement “feels like it has a real chilling effect.”Sanders-Townsend, a former spokesperson for the Biden White House, said during the broadcast that “what Stephanopoulos said” about Trump being liable for rape “seems to hold up [with] what the judge said after the fact…” Her comments were reported by Mediaite.She noted that Stephanopoulos is paying $1 million of his own money to Trump’s attorney Alejandro Brito while ABC News is paying $15 million.“It’s insane,” she said.The Post has sought comment from ABC News, MSNBC and the Trump transition.ABC News on Saturday agreed to pay $15 million toward Trump’s presidential library to settle a defamation lawsuit over anchor 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.“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.The settlement agreement was signed Friday, the same day a Florida federal judge ordered Trump and Stephanopoulos to sit for separate depositions in the case next week.
The settlement means that sworn testimony is no longer required.The agreement bore Trump’s bold, distinctive signature and an electronic signature with the initials GRS in a space for Stephanopoulos’ name...