On Saturday, ABC News agreed to pay $15 million toward Donald Trump’s presidential library to settle a defamation lawsuit. The suit stemmed from a March 20424 interview between George Stephanopoulos and Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC) in which the anchor erroneously asserted the president-elect was “found liable for rape” and “defaming the victim of that rape” in relation to the E. Jean Carroll case.
In reality, a jury found Trump liable of sexually abusing Carroll and specifically answered “no” to the question on the May 2023 verdict form that asked: “Did Ms. Carroll prove, by a preponderance of the evidence, that Mr. Trump raped Ms. Carroll?”
What Happened
You are probably familiar with the absolutely disgusting interview that led to all of this. Stephanopoulos was appalled that Mace, who is a rape survivor, could back someone in Trump who – Stephanopoulos kept claiming – had been “found liable for rape.”
The thing that got ABC News in trouble was Stephanopoulos went out there and repeatedly said that a jury had found him liable for rape, which is not what happened. A jury found Trump liable for sexual abuse, and they said “no” on the rape charge. Then, Judge Lewis Kaplan, who was obviously not a Trump fan, wrote up his interpretation of what happened. In his memorandum opinion, Judge Kaplan wrote:
The finding that Ms. Carroll failed to prove that she was ‘raped’ 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.’
Nobody even understands what that means other than this judge wanted someone to see the word “rape” and Trump’s name in a headline. But the fact remains that the jury’s verdict is the jury’s verdict and no judge can change it with words after the fact or their post-verdict interpretation. He cannot increase the charge from sexual abuse to rape. It is not a possibility. And the bottom line is Trump was not found liable for rape by his jury.
Despite that fact, George Stephanopoulos went out of the air in that interview and sounded like this:
STEPHANOPOULOS: …You’ve endorsed Donald Trump for president. Judges and two separate juries have found him liable for rape…
STEPHANOPOULOS: …Donald Trump has been found liable for rape by a jury…
STEPHANOPOULOS: …I’m asking you a question about why you endorse someone who’s been found liable for rape…
STEPHANOPOULOS: …Someone who’s found liable for rape…
STEPHANOPOULOS: …You have to answer the question, why are you supporting someone who found liable for rape?
STEPHANOPOULOS: …They are afraid to come forward, as you said, because they are defamed by those who commit the rape…
STEPHANOPOULOS: …You don’t find it offensive that Donald Trump has been found liable for rape?
STEPHANOPOULOS: …Actually, what you’re doing is defending a man who’s been found liable for rape. I don’t understand how you can do that…
STEPHANOPOULOS: …The judge affirmed it was, in fact, rape. Donald Trump was found to have committed rape. That’s just a fact…
And that is why his news organization now has to pay $15 million, plus legal fees.
What Is Defamation?
As a public figure, people have the highest ability to say bad things about you. The First Amendment protects speech, and it really protects speech about public figures or political acts taken by public figures. Talking about a political person in the public sphere has the most protection you can get under the law. That is why the media generally gets away with saying false things about politicians, as long as it doesn’t reach the extremely high standard of ‘malice.’
And what is ‘malice’? It means ‘with knowledge that it is false.’ It means I am knowingly lying about you. Like, I know you weren’t found liable for rape, but I am saying it anyway. Or the more frequent standard is ‘the reckless disregard for its falsity.’ It can’t just be that I didn’t do my homework. That is negligent, but that is not reckless.
When you are a public figure claiming that you have been defeated, the standard is very high. ABA News could have avoided this whole thing if Stephanopoulos went out the very next week and said, ‘I would like to apologize to President Trump. I stated the following things. Those things were not true. This is what I should have said.’
That’s it. That shows a potential jury or judge you didn’t have actual malice in your heart, and you did your best to correct the record. It doesn’t necessarily totally exonerate you, but, as a practical matter, it does. Instead, you had him out there trying to show how tough he was because he obviously had something to prove.
The Lawsuit
Stephanopoulos made those comments in March, and Trump filed a lawsuit soon after. In May, Stephanopoulos went on with Stephen Colbert and doubled down. In July, ABC’s motion to dismiss Trump’s case was denied.
Once they lost the motion to dismiss, they easily could have settled it then because we know what comes next. It is the discovery phase when they have to turn over their texts and their documents. They are going to have to give Stephanopoulos over for a deposition, and they knew that producers on the show are going to have to sit for one as well. Then, there would be motion practice and, possibly, a trial.
ABC News didn’t let it get to any of that, and I really think it is something about George Stephanopoulos sitting for a deposition that made them fold. There were probably texts and instant messaging between Stephanopoulos and his team. I bet he was corresponding with his producers during that whole segment, and I guarantee you that those communications don’t reflect well on anybody involved. It could possibly be the team may be saying, ‘It’s sexual abuse, it’s sexual abuse,’ and George refusing to acknowledge that. But whatever it is, it didn’t look good for him.
‘He Is a Partisan Hack’
You never see these media organizations held to account for the vile lies they tell about Donald Trump. And trust me, as a media figure, I am not clamoring to see media figures sued for defamation for mild sins or even moderate sins. But this was just so egregious, and they did it over and over and over again.
George Stephanopoulos has been at ABC News for a long time, but it doesn’t make him any more respectable. He is a partisan hack. He started off as a partisan hack, and he remains one. He is just too ball-less to own his partisan nature. He wants us to believe that he is straight and narrow now, notwithstanding all those years helping Bill Clinton. And the irony of him going after a rape survivor in that way after his years running the war room that teared down Bill Clinton’s sexual assault accusers. I mean, it is just rich.
Now, the whole thing has cost him his reputation and his company $15 million.
You can check out Megyn’s full analysis by tuning in to episode 966 on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you like to listen. And don’t forget that you can catch The Megyn Kelly Show live on SiriusXM’s Triumph (channel 111) weekdays from 12pm to 2pm ET.