Donald Trump is guilty of sexually abusing a woman, writer E. Jean Carroll. But not of raping her. Stating otherwise will cost the American television network ABC $16 million (¤15.2 million). Of this amount, one million dollars (¤950,000) will go towards paying Trump's legal team. The rest will go to the businessman and politician. ABC, which has been owned by the world's largest communication and entertainment company, Disney, for 39 years, will have to post a statement on its website expressing regret for the case and apologizing to its audience.
ABC and Trump have reached an extrajudicial agreement, which is a blow not only to ABC but also to Stephanopoulos, whose future at the network is now in question. It would be a brutal end to the career of one of the most influential political journalists in the United States. Stephanopoulos was one of the closest confidants of Bill Clinton during his presidency, informally serving as White House spokesperson and coordinating with James Carville and Paul Begala the first presidential campaign of Clinton in 1992. His popularity - partly due to his relationships - at that time led to an episode of the TV show Friends being about him, and on several occasions, he was considered, along with George Clooney, the most eligible bachelor in the United States.
After Clinton's reelection in 1996, Stephanopoulos left politics and became a political analyst at ABC. In 2002, he took over as host of the program This Week, one of the most influential Sunday morning talk shows in the US, featuring key figures in the country's political life.
That's where he made his blunder on March 30, by stating that Trump had been found guilty of raping Carroll. In reality, the former president has been definitively convicted of sexual assault and defamation of the writer, for the events that took place in a New York department store dressing room in 1995 or 1996 (no one remembers very well). In total, Trump must pay Carroll $88.3 million (¤84 million) although he has appealed the two judgments against him, one from last year and the other from this year.