Deep in the pages of All Too Human, a memoir of his years as Bill Clinton’s senior adviser, George Stephanopoulos recounted his reaction to the news that a woman named Paula Jones had filed a sexual harassment suit against his boss: “The whole scene screamed ‘setup job’ … and it looked and smelled like the kind of ‘cash for trash’ transaction we had beaten back before.”

“Cash for trash,” eh? Stephanopoulos continued: “I also still believed that the president deserved some statute of limitations on past conduct. … It’s just not fair for him to be treated this way. No other president has ever had to put up with as much crap as they throw at him.”

Speaking of statutes of limitations and throwing crap at presidents: In 2019, an advice columnist named E. Jean Carroll sued then-president Donald Trump, claiming that he’d raped her in a New York City department store dressing room back in 1995 or 1996 — she couldn’t remember the exact year. Trump vehemently denied the charges, saying among other things, “I know nothing about this nut job.”

Last year, a Manhattan jury cleared Trump of the rape charge but found him liable for sexual abuse and defamation, ordering him to pay $5 million to Carroll. And earlier this year, a jury ordered Trump to pay an additional mind-boggling sum of $83.3 million to Carroll as punishment for his continued social media attacks on her. But isn’t that precisely what innocent people tend to do — deny the allegations against them and attack their accusers as dishonest?

What’s important, though — at least insofar as ABC and Stephanopoulos are concerned — is that Trump was cleared of the rape charge. But as the New York Post reports, that fact clearly didn’t matter to Stephanopoulos, who before a March interview with Republican congresswoman and rape survivor Nancy Mace was “repeatedly told by his executive producer not to use the word ‘rape’” in reference to Trump.

Throwing this caution to the wind, the ABC News anchor used the “R” word liberally during the interview in a naked attempt to shame Mace for her support of such a monster — a decision that cost his employer dearly. Here it is, in case you missed it:

Here is the video :rotatinglight:

Trump sued George Stephanopoulos after this interview with Nancy Mace for defamation, and Stephanopoulos is now scheduled for a deposition next week

Raise your hand :hand:️ if you hope Trump gets every dime he can outta Stephanopoulos pic.twitter.com/kGZnsHML6G

— @Chicago1Ray :us: (@Chicago1Ray) <a href=“https://twitter.com/Chicago1Ray/status/1867711274106466536?refsrc=twsrc%5Etfw”>December 13, 2024

Trump promptly sued ABC News for defamation — hey, two can play at this game! — and the network settled by agreeing to pay $15 million toward Trump’s future presidential foundation and museum and another $1 million to Trump’s lawyer for legal fees.

And, boy, are the Leftmedia types ever mad about the settlement. They say it’ll have a chilling effect on the fourth estate, especially given that Trump has active lawsuits against Gannett, the Des Moines Register, and election-interfering pollster J. Ann Selzer; against CBS for its deceptive editing of a Kamala Harris interview in a “60 Minutes” episode; against the Pulitzer Prize board for a defamatory statement related to the Russia collusion hoax; and against author Bob Woodward for unauthorized release of audio recordings.

As Trump put it, “It costs a lot of money to do it, but we have to straighten out the press. Our press is very corrupt. Almost as corrupt as our elections.” Nice twofer, Mr. President.

“It’s really surprising and honestly perplexing that ABC decided to settle at this time and for this amount,” University of Georgia law professor Sonja R. West told The Wall Street Journal. “No one wants to send the message to potential future plaintiffs that defamation lawsuits against the press are likely to end with a big payday.”

Perhaps the ABC brass were worried about the strength of their case or the perils of discovery, or perhaps Disney CEO Bob Iger wanted to square things with Trump before he takes office and makes regulatory decisions that will undoubtedly affect the Disney conglomerate’s portfolio.

In any case, what’s important and delicious is all the gnashing of teeth and rending of garments going on at ABC. As the New York Post reports, “As part of the settlement, Stephanopoulos was forced to apologize — which made the journalist ‘apoplectic’ and ‘humiliated.’ … A source said ABC News employees are now calling Stephanopoulos ‘Furious George’ behind his back. They are also wondering how the star anchor can now cover the incoming Trump administration.”

But Georgie Boy is defiant: “I’m not going to be cowed out of doing my job because of the threat,” he bravely said, right around the same time he was deactivating his 2.3-million-follower X account and refusing multiple requests for comment from those pests at the Post.

Stephanopoulos earns in the neighborhood of $20 million annually at ABC, and as the network’s “luck” would have it, they recently came to terms with him on a new multiyear contract.

Nice work if you can get it.