A federal judge has authorized the release of $5.8 million plus interest to E. Jean Carroll, ending the latest chapter in a civil case that has dogged Donald Trump since a Manhattan jury found him liable for sexually abusing Carroll in 1996 and defaming her afterward. Judge Lewis A. Kaplan issued the order on Wednesday, days after the U.S. Supreme Court declined without noted dissent to hear Trump's appeal of the 2023 verdict.
The ruling came over objections from Trump's legal team, which had fought to keep the funds locked in escrow while it pursued a long-shot bid for Supreme Court reconsideration. Carroll's lawyers had run out of patience, and, it appears, so had the judge.
The New York Post reported that Kaplan's order directs that the money, originally a $5 million jury award that has grown to nearly $5.8 million with accumulated interest, be paid to Carroll along with any additional interest accrued since the verdict. A separate $83 million defamation award from a January 2024 trial remains on appeal.
Carroll, now 82, first publicly described the alleged attack in a 2019 memoir. She testified that Trump sexually abused her in the dressing room of a Manhattan luxury department store in 1996. Trump has repeatedly insisted he never knew Carroll and accused her of trying to sell books at his expense and having political motives.
Trump did not attend the 2023 civil trial. The jury found him liable and set damages at $5 million. That money was set aside while Trump pursued appeals through the federal courts and ultimately to the Supreme Court.
A second trial followed in January 2024, focused on defamation. Trump briefly testified at that proceeding. Judge Kaplan required the jury to accept the prior jury's findings and only determine how much money, if any, Trump owed Carroll for statements he made about her while serving as president. That jury awarded $83 million, a figure Trump is now appealing separately.
The disbursement fight intensified after the Supreme Court turned away Trump's appeal last month. AP News reported that Trump's lawyers contacted Carroll's attorneys within minutes of the Supreme Court's rejection, requesting yet another delay while they sought reconsideration. Carroll's legal team, led by attorneys Roberta Kaplan, D. Brandon Trice, and Maximilian T. Crema, filed a motion in Manhattan federal court demanding immediate payment from the escrow account.
Their filing was blunt:
"To date, Carroll has agreed to each of Defendant's many requests to delay the payment he owes her. Given the extraordinary lengths he has taken to avoid such payments and that each of those efforts has been denied in full, that cooperation ends today. It is time for him to pay Carroll."
Judge Kaplan agreed to handle the matter on an expedited basis, setting a July 7 deadline for Trump's team to respond.
Trump's attorneys did respond, with a motion asking Kaplan to keep the nearly $5.8 million in escrow while a petition for rehearing remained pending before the Supreme Court. The Washington Examiner reported that Trump lawyers Josh Halpern and Michael Madaio argued that releasing the funds could cause "irreparable harm" if the judgment were later overturned.
"Collection cannot begin while proceedings remain pending before the Supreme Court, which is currently the case."
Their argument went further. Trump's legal team contended that a future presidential immunity ruling in the separate $83.3 million defamation case could potentially undermine the earlier $5 million verdict, because presidential statements were introduced as evidence during the 2023 trial. In other words, they asked the court to freeze the smaller payout based on a legal theory still being litigated in a different proceeding.
Carroll's attorney Roberta Kaplan pushed back, arguing the Supreme Court's denial marked "the end of the line" for Trump's appeal. The Supreme Court had expressed no division in its decision, no noted dissent, no signal of interest in revisiting the matter.
Judge Kaplan sided with Carroll.
The $5.8 million order, while significant, represents the smaller of two financial judgments Carroll has won against Trump. The $83 million defamation award from the January 2024 trial is still working its way through the appellate courts. That case carries its own complications, including the presidential immunity questions Trump's lawyers have raised.
It remains unclear whether Trump's legal team will follow through on asking the Supreme Court to reconsider its refusal to hear the 2023 appeal, or whether that window has effectively closed. Newsmax noted that Trump's lawyers were exploring that avenue even as Carroll's team moved to collect, but the Supreme Court's silence, no dissent, no indication of interest, makes reconsideration a steep climb.
Meanwhile, Trump has resumed public statements about Carroll as his lawyers weigh their options. The exact content of those statements was not detailed in court filings, but the timing, concurrent with deliberations over whether to ask the Supreme Court for another look, adds a layer of legal risk to an already complex situation.
The Carroll litigation has now stretched across three years of trials, appeals, and procedural maneuvering. Carroll first went public with her allegations in 2019, nearly a quarter-century after the alleged incident. Trump has maintained throughout that he never knew her, calling her claims politically motivated. Two separate Manhattan juries disagreed, awarding a combined $88.8 million across the two trials.
Whether the $83 million figure survives appeal will depend on questions the courts have not yet answered, including how far presidential immunity extends to statements made from the White House. Those questions matter well beyond this case.
But the $5.8 million fight is now over, barring an extraordinary reversal. Every court that has reviewed the 2023 verdict, from the trial judge to the appellate courts to the Supreme Court, has declined to disturb it. Carroll's lawyers asked for delay after delay to end. Judge Kaplan agreed.
At some point, the legal system runs out of procedural exits. For the 2023 Carroll verdict, that point arrived on Wednesday.
