US judge clears release of $5.8 million to E Jean Carroll in Trump case

NEW YORK: A US judge on Wednesday authorised the release of nearly $5.8 million to writer E Jean Carroll to satisfy a 2023 civil judgment in which a jury found President Donald Trump liable for sexually abusing and defaming her.

US District Judge Lewis Kaplan in Manhattan ordered that the money, which includes the original $5 million award plus interest, be disbursed to the former Elle magazine advice columnist. The funds had been kept in escrow while Trump pursued an appeal.

The move came after the US Supreme Court on June 29 declined to hear Trump’s case. None of the nine justices, including three appointed by Trump, publicly noted any dissent.

Trump responded by appealing Kaplan’s latest order to the federal appeals court in Manhattan less than an hour after it was issued. A spokesperson for Trump’s lawyers said in a statement:

"The American People stand with President Trump as they demand an immediate end to all of the Witch Hunts, including the Democrat-funded travesty of the Carroll Hoaxes"

Lawyers for Carroll did not immediately comment.

Arguments over payment

In a court filing submitted Tuesday night, Trump’s lawyers argued that Carroll should not be allowed to collect the damages until after the Supreme Court considered his renewed effort to overturn the verdict.

They said Trump would suffer irreparable harm and face unrecoverable loss if Carroll followed through on what they described as her stated intention to donate the money, because it would likely be impossible to recover the funds afterward. They also argued that allowing payment now, only for the Supreme Court to later grant a rehearing, would damage confidence in the judicial process at a time when, according to his lawyers, Trump supporters and some critics have raised concerns about politically motivated weaponisation of the legal system.

Trump on Wednesday submitted a petition asking the Supreme Court to rehear his appeal. The court rarely revisits appeals after initially rejecting them.

Long-running legal battle

Carroll, 82, and Trump, 80, have been engaged in court proceedings for nearly seven years after Carroll first publicly accused him of raping her around 1996 in a dressing room at Bergdorf Goodman in Manhattan.

Trump has denied Carroll’s allegations, calling them a hoax and a con job. He has also said he did not know her and that she invented the rape allegation to help promote her memoir.

A jury awarded Carroll $5 million over a Trump denial made in 2022, though jurors did not conclude that he raped her. In a separate case, another jury in January 2024 ordered Trump to pay Carroll $83.3 million in damages over his original 2019 denial, made while he was serving his first term in the White House.

Trump has argued that he is protected by presidential immunity in relation to that 2019 denial. Last September, the 2nd US Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan refused to overturn the $83.3 million verdict. Trump intends to take that ruling to the Supreme Court, and his lawyers have said that a successful appeal there could affect the legal basis of the $5 million award.

Carroll has accused Trump of delaying both cases in an attempt to avoid accountability.