US Judge orders Trump's $5m damages be released to E Jean Carroll

A US judge has ordered the release of the more than $5m Donald Trump owes E Jean Carroll following her successful 2023 sexual abuse and defamation trial against him. Less than an hour after the judge issued his order, Trump filed paperwork indicating he was appealing the decision. Trump had deposited this $5m jury award, as well as 11% interest, into a court-held account some six weeks after Carroll’s courtroom victory. Manhattan federal court Judge Lewis Kaplan’s Wednesday directs the disbursement of these court controlled funds, which now total some $5.8m due to interest accrual.
The funds had been held in escrow while Trump appealed the verdict, but the U.S. Supreme Court on June 29 declined to take up the Republican president’s case. None of the nine justices, including three appointed by Trump, noted dissents. Kaplan said the agreement establishing the escrow entitled Carroll to the money now, more than 6-1/2 years after she first sued Trump in November 2019. “Defendant has been stalling this case for years,” the judge wrote. “It is time for him to ‘do equity’ and pay the judgment.” Trump asked the federal appeals court in Manhattan to put the disbursement on immediate hold while he appealed. The court denied his motion on Wednesday night. Trump’s lawyers did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the president’s next legal steps.
Both sums involve a 2019 New York magazine cover story excerpting Carroll’s book, What Do We Need Men For? A Modest Proposal. Carroll alleged in the book that Trump sexually assaulted her three decades prior in the dressing room of a New York department store. Trump responded with several statements denying Carroll’s claim, insisting that he did not know who she was, and stating he had never met her. Carroll sued Trump in November 2019 over these statements, saying they damaged her reputation.
Carroll in 2022 did file suit against Trump for the alleged attack and additional defamation after he had left office. The first trial involved Carroll’s second lawsuit because the initial litigation was mired in appeals, with Trump trying to argue he couldn’t be sued for statements made during his presidency.