WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump has settled a lawsuit against Elon Musk’s X over the social media platform, formerly known as Twitter, banning him after the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol, according to a person familiar with the matter.
The settlement was for about $10 million, the person said, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss the confidential arrangement. Some of the money was expected to go to Trump's legal fees, with the balance directed to his future presidential library. It’s the latest instance of a large corporation agreeing to make large payments to the president to settle litigation, as Trump has threatened retribution on his critics and rivals.
The Wall Street Journal was first to report on the settlement. X didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
Musk, who bought Twitter in 2022 and renamed it to X, spent more than $200 million helping boost Trump's 2024 presidential effort and has joined the administration to lead Trump's efforts to radically shrink and transform the federal bureaucracy.
Meta last month agreed to a $25 million settlement to end the president's lawsuit over being barred from its platforms after the Capitol attack by Trump's supporters seeking to overturn his 2020 electoral defeat. And ABC News agreed in December to pay $15 million toward Trump’s presidential library to settle a defamation lawsuit over anchor George Stephanopoulos’ inaccurate on-air assertion that the president-elect had been found civilly liable for raping writer E. Jean Carroll.
Trump has also sued Alphabet’s Google over being banned from YouTube after the Capitol riot, although his access has since been restored.
Trump has filed a lawsuit against CBS News over claims that the network aired a misleading interview with his 2024 opponent, Vice President Kamala Harris, on the program “60 Minutes” that amounted to “partisan and unlawful acts of election and voter interference” intended to “mislead the public and attempt to tip the scales.” The program denied the claims.
And he has a lawsuit against The Des Moines Register, the news outlet’s parent company, Gannett, and the Iowa newspaper’s pollster Ann Selzer, alleging they violated the Iowa Consumer Fraud Act by releasing a poll days before the November election that significantly understated his support in the state. The paper and Selzer have denied wrongdoing.
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Associated Press writer Barbara Ortutay contributed reporting.
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