After appellate defeats, Trump pays Carroll $5 million

MANHATTAN (CN) — After years of attempting to evade or delay paying up, more than $5 million of President Donald Trump’s money has officially been transferred to writer E. Jean Carroll.

As confirmed in a Tuesday docket entry, the funds — $5.6 million, including interest — were disbursed last week following a federal judge’s order that Trump pay Carroll the money he owes her after she successfully sued him for battery and defamation.

Jurors in May 2023 found Trump liable for raping Carroll and then defaming her when he publicly denied her account. For the next three years, Trump sought to get out of the $5 million award, losing his battles at both the Second Circuit and Supreme Court. Finally ordered to pony up, Trump again sought to stall, asking the circuit for an emergency stay that was swiftly denied.

Trump “has been stalling this case for years,” U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan, a Bill Clinton appointee, wrote in a memorandum accompanying his order.

“A jury unanimously concluded that he sexually abused and defamed plaintiff and awarded her damages accordingly. The judgment on that verdict has been upheld on appeal. En banc rehearing has been denied. The Supreme Court has denied certiorari without dissent. It is time for him to ‘do equity’ and pay the judgment,” the judge wrote.

Carroll’s attorney Roberta Kaplan echoed the judge in a statement emailed to Courthouse News on Tuesday.

“Three years ago, a unanimous nine-person jury found President Trump liable for sexually assaulting and defaming E. Jean Carroll. Today, we are pleased to report that she has received the damages payment the jury awarded her as a result of that verdict,” she said.

During Trump’s first term, Carroll went public with her account, writing in her 2019 book “What Do We Need Men For? A Modest Proposal” that Trump had raped her in 1996 in the fitting room at the famed Bergdorf Goodman department store in New York City.

After a book excerpt was published, Trump denied ever having met Carroll, and said she was “not my type.” Three years later, Carroll sued Trump under a New York state law that opened a one-year window for adult survivors of sexual assault to seek civil relief for claims otherwise barred by the statute of limitations. In addition to battery, she claimed defamation, pointing to Trump’s denial of the accusations and ensuing digs at her appearance.

Two other women who also accuse Trump of sexual assault testified at the 2023 trial, each describing a situation similar to Carroll’s, decades apart, where Trump interrupted friendly conversation by suddenly and forcefully kissing them.

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