Judge Clears E. Jean Carroll to Collect $5.8M Damages from Donald Trump

A US judge on Wednesday authorised the release of nearly $5.8 million in damages to magazine writer E. Jean Carroll, following a 2023 civil verdict in which a jury found President Donald Trump liable for sexually abusing and defaming her.

US District Judge Lewis Kaplan in Manhattan ordered the payment to Carroll, a former Elle magazine advice columnist, comprising the original $5 million award plus accumulated interest.

The funds had been held in escrow while Trump appealed the verdict. However, the US Supreme Court on June 29 declined to hear the Republican president’s challenge, with none of the nine justices, including three appointed by Trump, recording a dissent.

Judge Kaplan said the escrow agreement entitled Carroll to receive the money more than six years after she first filed her lawsuit against Trump in November 2019.

“Defendant has been stalling this case for years,” Kaplan wrote. “It is time for him to ‘do equity’ and pay the judgment.”

Trump had asked a federal appeals court in Manhattan to temporarily block the payment while he pursued further legal action. The court rejected his request on Wednesday night. His lawyers did not immediately comment on his next steps.

A spokesperson for Trump’s legal team said in a statement after the ruling: “The American people stand with President Trump as they demand an immediate end to all of the witch hunts, including the Democrat-funded travesty of the Carroll hoaxes.”

In a filing opposing Trump’s appeal, Carroll’s lawyers described the move as his latest attempt to delay the proceedings, pursue unsuccessful appeals and introduce new arguments after previous defences had failed.

“Defendant is out of time,” Carroll’s lawyers said. “Carroll has waited more than three years for a jury’s verdict to be paid. She should not have to wait any longer.”

Trump’s Lawyers Warn of ‘Weaponisation’ of Legal System

Trump’s lawyers had argued that Carroll should wait to receive the damages until after the Supreme Court considered the president’s renewed effort to overturn the verdict.

They said allowing Carroll to collect the money, only for the Supreme Court to later reconsider the case, would “undermine public confidence in an orderly judicial process”. They also cited concerns among Trump supporters and some critics about what they described as the “politically motivated weaponisation of the legal system”.

Trump’s legal team further argued that he could suffer irreparable harm if Carroll gave away the money, as she has said she intends to do, because recovering the funds later could prove difficult.

Judge Kaplan rejected that argument, saying the payment would not cause irreparable harm because Trump could seek to recover the money in the “highly unlikely” event that the Supreme Court accepted his appeal and overturned the verdict.

Carroll’s lawyers said their 82-year-old client planned to place the money in an interest-bearing account and use it to support her retirement.

The Supreme Court rarely agrees to hear appeals after initially declining to take up a case.

Trump Plans Further Appeal

Carroll accused Trump, 80, of raping her in 1996 in a dressing room at the Bergdorf Goodman department store in Manhattan.

Trump has denied Carroll’s allegations, describing them as a “hoax” and a “con job”. He has said he did not know her and alleged that she fabricated the claim to promote her memoir.


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