"Sexual Harassment, Not Sexual Assault"... ABC Network Sued by Trump Settles for 21.5 Billion Won

Payment of Litigation Costs and Issuance of Apology Statement

ABC, a U.S. terrestrial broadcaster, which was sued for defamation by President-elect Donald Trump, has agreed to pay approximately 21.5 billion KRW in a settlement to Trump’s side on the condition of ending the lawsuit.

President-elect Donald Trump (left) and George Stephanopoulos, ABC anchor. Photo by Reuters and Yonhap News

On the 14th (local time), U.S. media outlets including AP News and CNN reported that ABC News and anchor George Stephanopoulos, who have been in legal disputes with President-elect Trump, recently agreed to pay $15 million (about 21.5 billion KRW) to Trump’s 'Presidential Foundation and Museum' in exchange for terminating the lawsuit.

Along with the settlement, ABC agreed to pay $1 million (about 140 million KRW) in plaintiff’s legal fees and to issue an apology stating that "Stephanopoulos regrets the remarks made about former President Trump during an interview with Representative Nancy Mace." ABC expressed its position, saying, "We are pleased that the parties have agreed to end the lawsuit under the terms submitted to the court."

Earlier, in March, Trump claimed that George Stephanopoulos, a well-known journalist and host of ABC’s 'This Week,' defamed him by spreading false information on air. Stephanopoulos asked Representative Mace, who was a rape victim, about her reasons for supporting Trump, who was accused of sexually assaulting former fashion columnist E. Jean Carroll. Carroll is the person who claimed that former President Trump sexually assaulted her in a department store dressing room in Manhattan, New York, in the mid-1990s.

During the interview, Stephanopoulos repeatedly mentioned that President-elect Trump was convicted of 'rape.' However, Trump’s side filed a lawsuit against ABC, arguing that the court only recognized sexual harassment charges, not rape. Last year, a Manhattan jury found that the assault and sexual harassment allegations against Trump by Carroll were valid, but ruled that rape was not proven. Trump appealed, but the presiding judge dismissed the appeal, stating that although the jury’s implicit acknowledgment of the harm did not legally constitute rape in the narrow sense, it did correspond to the commonly understood meaning of rape.

Meanwhile, The New York Times (NYT) evaluated ABC News’s significant concession as an unusual victory for Trump, who has filed lawsuits against the media. Trump has previously filed lawsuits and engaged in legal battles against critical media outlets and authors, including CNN and NYT.