Judge orders Trump to pay E. Jean Carroll $5 million

MANHATTAN (CN) — A federal judge on Wednesday ordered President Donald Trump to pay writer E. Jean Carroll the $5 million he owes her after she successfully sued him for defamation after she accused him of sexual assault.

Less than an hour later, Trump filed a notice of appeal via his attorney Michael Madaio.

Trump also sought to get out of the payment at the last minute, filing a request late Tuesday to delay it while he asks the Supreme Court to rehear his case. U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan denied that request and ordered the court clerk to disburse $5 million from an account Trump previously paid into.

In his opposition, Trump had claimed the payment would cause him “irreparable harm” while “not improperly disadvantaging” Carroll.

The Supreme Court denied Trump’s request to review the case in June. Trump brought his case to the high court after losing multiple attempts to escape the $5 million penalty jurors awarded Carroll in May 2023.**  **

Underlying the case is Carroll’s accusation that Trump raped her in the spring of 1996 in a fitting room at the Bergdorf Goodman department store. The two recognized each other — Trump a real estate tycoon and tabloid figure, Carroll the author of a popular advice column in Elle magazine — and shopped together after Trump asked Carroll to help him pick out a gift for a woman, Carroll testified.

“I know: lingerie,” Carroll remembers Trump suggesting.

In the intimates department, Trump tossed her a sheer bodysuit and told her to try it on, Carroll says. She threw it back, joking that he ought to wear it, and the two made their way toward the fitting room. Carroll testified Trump then pushed her against the wall, began aggressively kissing her, pulled down her tights and shoved his fingers, then his penis, inside her.

Carroll went public with her story in 2019 while Trump was still in office. She sued three years later under a New York 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 allegations and ensuing digs at her appearance.

At trial in 2023, two other women accused Trump of sexually assaulting them under similar circumstances, decades apart, in which they say Trump interrupted friendly conversation by suddenly and forcefully kissing them.

Trump has repeatedly denied the accusations against him and called Carroll’s story a “hoax.” His attorney did not immediately return a request for comment Wednesday.

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