Donald Trump’s lawyers are making a striking new push in court, asking that writer E. Jean Carroll return the $5.6 million she recently received after winning her sexual abuse and defamation case against him.
The move came after a federal court in Manhattan released the money to Carroll from a court registry account that had held the judgment during Trump’s appeals. The sum had grown with interest, bringing the total to about $5.6 million before it was paid out.
That disbursement followed the U.S. Supreme Court’s refusal to hear Trump’s appeal of the earlier verdict. Trump’s lawyers then tried to keep the money frozen while they pursued a rehearing request, but the court filings did not stop the payment from going forward.
In those papers, Trump’s attorneys argued that sending Carroll the money was “premature and improper” because they had already asked the Supreme Court to revisit its refusal to hear the case.
They also claimed Trump would suffer “irreparable harm” if Carroll is allowed to keep or use the $5.6 million while that rehearing request is still unresolved, and they want the court to force the money back into escrow until all possible legal challenges have run their course.
This latest move adds another turn to a legal fight that has stretched on for years since Carroll publicly said Trump assaulted her during the 1990s.
Carroll, now 82, told the court that a seemingly lighthearted meeting with Trump in 1996 at an upscale Manhattan department store changed dramatically when he attacked her in a dressing room.
Trump did not attend the first trial in 2023 and has repeatedly denied wrongdoing. He has said he did not know Carroll, accused her of trying to boost book sales, and said in an interview that ‘she’s not my type’.
The court did not uphold Carroll’s claim that Trump raped her, but it did find him liable for sexual abuse and defamation. That led to a $5 million award, which later rose to more than $5.6 million after interest built up during Trump’s efforts to postpone payment.
Carroll’s attorneys have strongly opposed Trump’s latest demand, describing it as a ‘frivolous and desperate’ effort to undo terms that had already been agreed by both sides.
Her lead lawyer, Roberta Kaplan, said the original escrow arrangement clearly provided that the money would be released if the Supreme Court refused to hear the case. Her position is that Trump cannot now seek to reclaim the funds after falling short throughout the federal court process.
Carroll is reportedly intending to move the money into a retirement account. Trump’s legal team, however, says it plans to keep fighting over that payout while also challenging a separate $83.3 million defamation award that a second jury granted Carroll in 2024.