Two of the co-hosts of MSNBC's "The Weekend: expressed surprise and dismay on Sunday morning that ABC settled a defamation lawsuit with Donald Trump over comments made by anchor George Stephanopoulos where he claimed the president-elect committed rape during his sexual assault on writer E. Jean Carroll.
Late Saturday the settlement was announced with the network donating $15 million "to a Presidential foundation and museum to be established by or for Plaintiff, as Presidents of the United States of America have established in the past." In addition the network apologized and will pay $1 million for Trump's legal fees.
Reacting to the news, MSNBC's Symone Sanders Townsend exclaimed, "What is going on?' and pressed legal analyst Joyce Vance to explain why the network rolled over.
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Noting that Vance, as a former U.S. Attorney, has experience with defamation lawsuits, she asked her to explain the possible reasoning behind the surprise settlement.
"I think everybody was surprised by this," Vance admitted. "And precisely because the depositions had not taken place yet. It seemed like a really early point in this case for it to be settled."
"You know the standard and defamation cases, right?" she asked. "In order to prevail, Trump would have to prove that ABC was reckless when it came to the truth or falsity of the statements they made on air. That would be a tough bar for Trump to reach in this case because of the kinds of statements that were made and the outcome of the E. Jean Carroll defamation case against Trump."
She went on to point out, "The jury found that E. Jean Carroll had been sexually assaulted by Trump and not raped. The judge's comment, by the way, which is made after the show airs on ABC come significantly after. I think it is still powerful evidence by ABC which they could have used."
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