FIRST ON FOX– ABC News and its top anchor George Stephanopoulos have reached a settlement with Donald Trump in his defamation lawsuit that will result in the news network paying the president-elect $15 million.

The settlement was publicly filed Saturday and showed the two parties reached an agreement and avoided a costly trial. According to the settlement, ABC News will pay $15 million as a charitable donation to a “presidential foundation and museum to be established by or for Plaintiff, as established by Presidents of the United States of America in the past.” . Additionally, the network will pay $1 million in Trump’s legal fees.

Stephanopoulos and ABC News were also required to issue “statements of regret” at the end of a March 10, 2024, online article, such as an editor’s note about comments earlier in the year that led Trump to file the defamation lawsuit. The note reads: “ABC News and George Stephanopoulos regret statements about President Donald J. Trump made by George Stephanopoulos during an interview by George Stephanopoulos with Rep. Nancy Mace on ABC’s This Week on March 10, 2024.”

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ABC News said the network was “pleased” to have closed the case.

“We are pleased that the parties have reached an agreement to dismiss the lawsuit under the terms of the court docket,” an ABC News spokesperson told Fox News Digital.

Trump filed a defamation lawsuit against Stephanopoulos after he claimed in a civil lawsuit last March that Trump was “liable for rape” in a controversial interview with Rep. Nancy Mace, R-S.C.

After playing a clip of Mace talking about being a rape victim, Stephanopoulos asked her, “How do you reconcile your support for Donald Trump with the statement we just saw?”

“You supported Donald Trump for president. “Judge and two different jurors found him guilty of rape and defamation of the victim of that rape,” Stephanopoulos said, alluding to the legal victory of Trump accuser E. Jean Carroll.

Stephanopoulos repeated that claim 10 times during his argument with Mace, even though a jury actually found that Trump was liable for “sexual abuse,” which has a clear definition in New York law.

After the federal jury found Trump responsible for sexual abuse but not rape, Judge Lewis Kaplan wrote in a later ruling that just because Carroll had failed to prove rape “within the meaning of New York criminal law” did not mean that “She failed to prove that Mr. Trump ‘raped’ her, as many people have a general understanding of the word ‘rape’.”

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At first, Stephanopoulos was defiant about Trump’s lawsuit, telling CBS late-night host Stephen Colbert that he would not “let a threat stop me from doing my job.”

“Trump sued me for using the word ‘rape’ even though a judge said that actually happened. We filed a motion to dismiss,” Stephanopoulos said.

The agreement came after U.S. Magistrate Judge Lisette M. Reid on Friday ordered Trump and Stephanopoulos to testify next week before the Dec. 24 deadline for the defendants to file a motion for summary judgment. to avoid a trial.

In his lawsuit against Stephanopoulos and ABC, Trump was represented by Florida attorneys Alejandro Brito and Richard Klugh. The settlement with ABC was filed in federal court for the Southern District of Florida, where both parties signed and agreed to the terms.

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The settlement comes after a series of legal victories for Trump and his legal team, coordinated by lead counsel Boris Epshteyn.

Federal Judge Tanya Chutkan recently granted Special Counsel Jack Smith’s latest request to dismiss his case against Trump related to the 2020 election. Smith on Monday also rejected his appeal in the secret documents case after a federal judge dismissed the charges altogether in July, ruling that he had been improperly appointed as special counsel.

In New York v. Trump, Judge Juan Merchan granted Trump’s request to file a motion to dismiss charges in the case against Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg and removed the president-elect’s sentencing date from the schedule.

Trump is also suing CBS News for $10 billion in damages, claiming the network engaged in “deceptive behavior” for the purpose of election interference in its October interview with Vice President Kamala Harris.

Fox News’ Brian Flood, David Rutz and Alexander Hall contributed to this report.

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