William, I don't write the laws.

As I wrote, "What Trump was NOT, in this case, was a rapist." The law in this case says what he did was not rape. Thus Trump was correct to say that calling him a convicted rapist is incorrect, and doing it knowingly trying to harm him is defamatory.

Stephanopoulos' team knew, or should have known, that what he was saying about Trump was not correct. I believe that because Stephanopoulos repeated the term "convicted rapist" 3 or 4 times.

My guess is that Stephanopoulos and team discussed the exact wording Stephanopoulos would use, in writing, in preparing for the Mace interview. I also guess someone leaked those emails to Trump. Stephanopoulos and team knew that Trump had them dead to rights if they went to court, so they settled.

Trump has threatened a lot of people with court cases. He is a lying, thin-skinned, asshole con man. For me the best example of Trump's shitty personality was when he threatened to sue Bill Maher over a (IMO) funny joke about Trump having to prove his father was not an orangutan. Trump eventually withdrew that lawsuit - because he knew he had chance to win.

Stephanopoulos and Disney would have gone to court if they thought they could win. For Disney the $15 million is pocket change. It would have definitely helped the show and the network in ratings.