After ABC News reached a settlement in the defamation lawsuit launched by Donald Trump, anchor George Stephanopoulos deletes his account on Elon Musk-owned social media.
- December 17, 2024
AceShowbiz - ABC News anchor George Stephanopoulos has deleted his account on X, formerly Twitter, following a defamation settlement between his network and president-elect Donald Trump.
Stephanopoulos' X account (@GStephanopoulos) became unavailable over the weekend, displaying the message "This account doesn't exist." The account has over 2.3 million followers before it disappeared.
The deactivation occurred after ABC News settled a lawsuit filed by Trump over inaccurate comments Stephanopoulos made in a 2024 interview. In the interview, Stephanopoulos stated that Trump "has been found liable for rape by a jury," referring to Trump's case against author E. Jean Carroll.
A jury did find Trump liable for sexually abusing and defaming Carroll, awarding her $5 million, but did not find him liable for rape. Trump vehemently denied the rape allegations, calling them false and defamatory and appealing that verdict.
As part of the settlement, ABC News will pay $15 million to a presidential foundation and museum established by Trump and $1 million in legal fees to his team. The network also apologized for Stephanopoulos' statements and appended an editor's note to the interview transcript on its website.
Stephanopoulos remains active on Instagram and has been with ABC News since 1997. He is currently co-anchor of "Good Morning America" and anchors "This Week with George Stephanopoulos."
