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Payment Released After Appeals
Writer E. Jean Carroll has received more than $5m in damages from President Donald Trump after a federal judge ordered the release of funds held in a court-controlled account following the Supreme Court’s decision not to hear Trump’s appeal.
The payment was confirmed through court records and disbursement details, including $5,625,005.48, which CNN described as the damages award plus interest ordered by Judge Lewis Kaplan after the Supreme Court rejected Trump’s request to hear the case.
Carroll’s lawyers said the jury’s 2023 damages included a $5 million award after a unanimous nine-person jury found Trump liable for sexually abusing and defaming her.
Carroll’s attorney Roberta Kaplan said in a statement, “Today, we are pleased to report that she has received the damages payment the jury awarded her as a result of that verdict.”
The BBC reported that Trump had been pushing to delay payment while asking the Supreme Court to reconsider its decision not to hear his appeal, but the judge overseeing the case ordered him to pay last week.
Kaplan Says Jury Found Liability
Carroll’s case stemmed from allegations tied to a Manhattan department store dressing room in the mid-1990s, with the BBC saying she accused Trump of attacking her in a Bergdorf Goodman department store dressing room in Manhattan.
In 2023, a New York jury unanimously awarded Carroll damages after finding Trump liable for sexually abusing and defaming her, and the BBC said Trump denied the allegations.
Carroll’s attorney Roberta Kaplan framed the jury’s finding in a statement to NPR, saying, “Three years ago, a unanimous nine-person jury found President Trump liable for sexually assaulting and defaming E. Jean Carroll.”
NPR reported that the final payment included three years’ worth of interest and that court records filed on Tuesday showed the money was paid to Carroll and her legal team after Judge Lewis A. Kaplan ordered Trump to pay.
The White House referred NPR’s requests for comment to Trump’s personal lawyers, and ABC News reported that Trump had deposited $5.55 million in the Court Registry Investment System to be held in escrow during his appeal.
Another $83.3m Case Looms
Even as the $5 million judgment was paid, the dispute between Carroll and Trump continued, with NPR describing a larger potential payment still looming in a separate defamation lawsuit.
NPR said that Carroll’s separate defamation case involved an $83 million award, and it reported that Trump has appealed that outcome while federal courts have upheld the award so far.
ABC News reported that in 2024 a jury ordered Trump to pay $83.3 million in damages for defaming Carroll in 2019 when he denied her allegations of sexual abuse.
CNN reported that Carroll’s lawyers said she would use the money to fund her retirement and would “place the award in an interest-bearing account until Defendant’s petition for rehearing is denied.”
The BBC added that Trump has also appealed against another jury’s decision in 2024 finding him liable for defaming Carroll and awarding her nearly $84m, with a panel of federal judges denying his appeal last year.
