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(Left) Former President Donald Trump in New York on Jan. 26, 2024. (Right) E. Jean Carroll arrives at Manhattan federal court in New York on Jan. 26, 2024. Eduardo Munoz/Reuters; Spencer Platt/Getty Images
E. Jean Carroll may collect the $5.8 million held in escrow since a jury held President Donald Trump liable for sexually abusing and defaming her, a federal judge in New York ruled on July 8.
On the same day, Trump separately asked the U.S. Supreme Court to reconsider its recent denial of his petition challenging the jury verdict in the case.
The new disbursement order was issued by U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan.
It directs the clerk of the court to pay the $5.55 million that Trump paid into court, along with post-judgment interest that has accrued, bringing the total payout to Carroll to about $5.8 million.
Trump promptly appealed the disbursement order through his attorneys to halt the payment.
It’s unclear when the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit will act on this fresh appeal.
Carroll, an author, testified during a 2023 trial that Trump attacked her around 1996 in a dressing room of a department store near Trump Tower in New York City.
Trump denied the allegations.
In a May 2023 verdict, a federal jury held Trump liable both for sexually abusing Carroll and defaming her when he made statements in October 2022 denying her allegations.
The jury awarded Carroll $5 million in damages.
The Second Circuit upheld both the $5 million verdict and a separate $83.3 million verdict Carroll won against Trump.
The larger award in January 2024 was for Trump’s alleged defamation arising from his denial of the allegations and accusations that Carroll was lying.
The new ruling is regarding the $5 million award.
Trump is still contesting the $83.3 million verdict in the courts.
In a June 30 filing with the federal district court in New York, Carroll’s attorney, Roberta Kaplan, asked the court to move forward with disbursement of the funds, saying Trump was stalling to avoid paying what he owes.
“This time around, he remarkably seeks to further delay Carroll’s collection of the judgment awarded to her in 2023 by stating that he is considering whether to move for reconsideration of the Supreme Court’s denial of his petition,” the lawyer said. “But this is the end of the line.”
Trump was unanimously found liable by a nine-member jury and a unanimous Second Circuit panel affirmed, then the full Second Circuit affirmed, and then the Supreme Court declined to review the case, she said.
“After four years of litigation across every level of the federal court system, it is time for this case to end ... [and] Carroll is now entitled to obtain payment of the money due under the judgment.”
Separately, on June 29, the Supreme Court rejected Trump’s request that the justices hear an appeal about the case that led to the $5 million verdict.
In the petition, his lawyers faulted what they called Carroll’s “politically motivated allegations ... about conduct that purportedly occurred decades earlier.”
Trump has long denied the incident took place and “no physical or DNA evidence corroborates Carroll’s story. There were no eyewitnesses, no video evidence, and no police report or investigation.”
“Carroll waited more than 20 years to falsely accuse Donald Trump, who she politically opposes, until after he became the 45th President, when she could maximize political injury to him and profit for herself,” the petition said.
Carroll’s attorneys filed a reply brief urging the nation’s highest court to reject the petition.
Trump is trying to “litigate these evidentiary issues yet again,” but fails to challenge the Second Circuit’s holding that he “failed to show that any error affected his substantial rights,” according to the brief.
After the high court dismissed the petition, Trump, on July 8, the same day as Judge Kaplan’s ruling, asked the justices to rehear, or reconsider, their decision dismissing the petition.
It is unclear when the Supreme Court will consider the rehearing request.
