A federal judge on Wednesday ordered that President Donald Trump must pay E. Jean Carroll $5.8 million in damages following a jury’s finding that he sexually abused and defamed the advice columnist more than two years ago.
Judge Lewis Kaplan issued the order directing the immediate disbursement of nearly $5.8 million from an escrow account where Trump had deposited funds in 2023 to secure an appeal of the verdict. The money comprises the original $5 million jury award plus approximately $779,783 in accumulated interest.
The order came just hours after Trump’s legal team made a last-minute attempt to block the payment. Late Tuesday night, Trump’s attorneys urged Kaplan not to release the funds, arguing that Trump should be permitted to pursue a long-shot bid asking the Supreme Court to reconsider its recent rejection of his appeal.
Carroll’s legal team responded swiftly and decisively. In a filing Tuesday, Carroll’s attorney Roberta Kaplan declared, “This is the end of the line. It is time for him to pay Carroll.” The filing emphasized that Carroll had repeatedly agreed to Trump’s many requests for delay, but would do so no longer.
The Supreme Court on June 29 rejected Trump’s petition for certiorari to review the case without explanation and without any noted dissents from any of the nine justices, including the three appointees Trump had selected during his first term. That denial effectively exhausted Trump’s appellate options in this particular case, according to an agreement the parties had reached in 2023 requiring the funds be released once the Supreme Court rejected his appeal.
In his order, Judge Kaplan pointed to the language of the agreement between Carroll and Trump, which explicitly called for the money to be paid to Carroll if the Supreme Court denied his request for review. Since that condition had been met on June 29, the judge determined the funds must be released.
“Kaplan’s order brushed aside arguments by Trump’s attorneys that proceedings remain pending before the Supreme Court because Trump had filed a long-shot petition seeking reconsideration. The Supreme Court very rarely grants such requests after having initially denied an appeal.
The case stems from a May 2023 jury trial in Manhattan federal court where Carroll alleged that Trump sexually assaulted her in a dressing room at the Bergdorf Goodman luxury department store in spring 1996. The jury found Trump liable for sexual abuse, though it did not find the conduct met the narrow statutory definition of rape under New York law at that time. The jury also found Trump defamed Carroll with statements he made in October 2022 denying her allegations.
Carroll had first publicly described the alleged assault in a 2019 memoir, which prompted Trump to issue public statements calling her a liar and denying he had ever met her. That 2022 statement and other remarks formed the basis for the defamation finding.
Carroll testified at the 2023 trial about the alleged incident, describing how Trump approached her in the lingerie department, asked for help selecting a gift, and then led her to a fitting room where the assault occurred. Trump did not attend the first trial but has consistently maintained his innocence, later claiming in a Truth Social post that he had never met Carroll, despite evidence of a photograph showing them together at an event in 1987.
After the jury rendered its verdict, Trump pursued multiple appeals. Judge Kaplan rejected Trump’s request for a new trial in a detailed decision. The Second Circuit Court of Appeals also upheld the verdict in December 2024, finding that Trump’s evidentiary arguments lacked merit and that the jury’s damages award was reasonable.
Trump appealed to the Supreme Court but received no support. The rejection by the high court left Trump with no further appellate options in this particular case. However, Trump remains engaged in another significant lawsuit brought by Carroll.
In a separate proceeding, a different jury awarded Carroll an additional $83.3 million in damages in January 2024 after finding Trump liable for defaming her with statements he made while serving as president in 2019. Trump is continuing to appeal that verdict, asserting claims of presidential immunity. That case has not yet reached the Supreme Court.
Trump’s legal team took several positions in opposing Carroll’s demand for immediate payment. His attorneys argued that a rehearing petition to the Supreme Court remained technically pending, and therefore the agreement’s disbursement clause had not been fully triggered. They also raised concerns that if Carroll gave away the money as she had indicated she would do, and Trump’s petition for reconsideration were eventually granted, the funds would be unrecoverable. They characterized the case as politically motivated and part of broader “weaponization” of the legal system.
Carroll’s attorneys dismissed these arguments as delaying tactics. They noted Trump had requested postponements repeatedly throughout the litigation and that each such request had been rejected. Judge Kaplan had previously commented on Trump’s apparent “strong desire to delay” the case through various litigation tactics.
The expedited briefing schedule reflected the court’s skepticism about Trump’s delay arguments. Judge Kaplan had initially ordered Trump to respond to Carroll’s disbursement motion within seven days rather than the standard fourteen, though Trump’s team later asked the court to restore the normal timeline.
The payment order represents a significant moment in the protracted litigation between Trump and Carroll, which has now spanned multiple trials and years of appeals. Whether Trump will comply with the order and whether further legal challenges emerge remains to be seen.