ABC News employees are reportedly shocked — and livid — after the network settled a defamation lawsuit with Donald Trump over comments made by “This Week" host George Stephanopoulos.
During his March 10, show, Stephanopoulos repeatedly said Trump was “found liable for rape” in the E. Jean Carroll civil case. However, Trump was officially found liable for "sexual abuse" but not rape. Trump claimed that the comments from Stephanopoulos were intentionally misleading the audience by calling it "rape" instead of "sexual abuse."
Defamation cases against public officials are particularly difficult to win due to a high bar that mandates evidence of “actual malice," as CNN explained in its report Monday.
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While Stephanopoulos said the wrong words, proving malice meant that Trump's legal team would be allowed access to all internal conversations among ABC News employees.
"My fear is that this sets a tone for the next four years and that the tone is: Do not upset the president," an ABC News reporter who will cover the second Trump presidency told Rolling Stone in a report published Tuesday.
"That's not our job. I'm not the only person here who saw this as a big win for Donald Trump and surrender," the person added.
Indeed, Trump has already launched several lawsuits against his critics, including a suit against a Des Moines Register pollster who conducted a survey that Trump claims defamed him. Trump is also in a lawsuit against reporter Bob Woodward as Trump believes he should be given the profits from the publication's recorded interviews.
In the Iowa case, Trump called it "fraud" and "election interference" to publish the poll.
“Defendants and their cohorts in the Democrat Party hoped that the Harris Poll would create a false narrative of inevitability for Harris in the final week of the 2024 Presidential Election,” Trump’s lawyers wrote in the filing Tuesday.
Trump will be forced to prove that the poll interfered with the election to win his case. However, he won the state.
Another network staffer added that it was a relief because the case was over before Trump's Jan. 20 inauguration. Others, however, fear it will have a "chilling effect" on aggressive coverage of Trump.
Rolling Stone spoke with two sources who called the settlement "capitulation" to Trump at a time he's threatening the media.
During his Monday press conference, Trump said he would like the government to launch some of these lawsuits for him.
"I feel I have to do this," Trump said. "I shouldn't really be the one to do it. It should have been the Justice Department or somebody else. But I have to do it. It costs a lot of money to do it, but we have to straighten out the press."
