Inside Disneys Decision to Settle the Trump Suit Against ABC News

When Disney reached a settlement last week with President-elect Donald J.Trump in his defamation case against ABC News, it led to accusations that the company had caved to him.

Media law experts predicted the move would embolden Mr.Trump to file other lawsuits that could test the limits of the First Amendment.Disney executives had anticipated the blowback.

But they also determined that they had a flawed case — and that the company could risk damaging press protections for everyone by continuing to fight, as well as hurt the Disney brand.Concern among Disney lawyers had been rising for months.In July, a federal judge in Florida, Cecilia M.

Altonaga, denied the media giant’s motion to dismiss the suit, which Mr.Trump had filed in the spring.

But more worrisome for Disney, ABC’s parent company, was her commentary.In a 21-page order, Judge Altonaga, the chief judge in the Southern District of Florida, dismantled Disney’s three-pronged argument for tossing the case.Mr.

Trump sued after George Stephanopoulos, the star ABC News anchor, said on the air that Mr.Trump had been found “liable for rape” in a New York civil trial.

In fact, Mr.Trump had been found liable for sexual abuse, although the judge in that case later noted that New York has a narrow legal definition of rape.“A reasonable jury could interpret Stephanopoulos’s statements as defamatory,” Judge Altonaga wrote, and then added an emphasis in italics.

“Stephanopoulos stated ten times that a jury — or juries — had found plaintiff liable for rape.”On Friday, Judge Altonaga dealt Disney another setback.She rejected requests to delay the case and ordered near-immediate depositions for Mr.

Trump and Mr.Stephanopoulos.

Moreover, Disney was also told to turn over “all remaining documents” related to the case — including pertinent emails and text messages sent by and to Mr.Stephanopoulos — by Sunday.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript ...