Parent company Disney’s capitulation last week in the defamation lawsuit by Trump against ABC News and Stephanopoulos shocked media and legal experts, but the damning revelation could help explain why Mouse House CEO Bob Iger signed off on the settlement so quickly.
The “This Week” host uttered that Trump was “liable for rape” while discussing the civil lawsuit won by journalist E. Jean Carroll during an interview with Republican lawmaker Nancy Mace in March.
“‘This Week’ producer said ‘don’t use the word rape’ before the segment started,” a network source told The Post. “The EP [executive producer] said it so many times.”
A second source at the show confirmed via a text message viewed by The Post that Stephanopoulos was warned “not to say rape.”
Iger agreed to the deal late Friday — hours after Florida Judge Cecilia Altonaga rejected a request to delay the case and ordered Trump and Stephanopoulos to sit for hours-long depositions just days before Christmas, the New York Times reported Wednesday.
The judge also demanded that Disney turn over emails and text messages sent by and to Stephanopoulos by Sunday — which could have forced the media mogul’s hand if the damning text messages surfaced, according to the Times.
Disney’s top lawyer, Horacio Gutierrez, urged Iger to settle the suit rather than risk a civil trial in front of a jury in the president-elect’s home state.
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