President Donald Trump has paid writer E. Jean Carroll more than $5.6 million after the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear his appeal of a 2023 federal jury verdict that found him liable for sexually abusing and defaming her, marking the first damages Carroll has collected from Trump in their years-long civil litigation.
The payment includes the original $5 million judgment and interest that accumulated while Trump pursued appeals. Funds held in a federal court registry were released after U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan rejected Trump's effort to keep the money in escrow while his lawyers considered additional legal options.
Carroll attorney Roberta Kaplan confirmed to CNBC that her client received the funds. The payment resolves the financial judgment from the 2023 trial, although Trump continues to deny Carroll's allegations and is still challenging a separate $83.3 million defamation award.
The dispute traces back to Carroll's allegation that Trump sexually assaulted her in a dressing room at the Bergdorf Goodman department store in Manhattan in the mid-1990s. Trump has consistently denied assaulting Carroll and has maintained that her accusations were fabricated.
In May 2023, a nine-member federal jury found Trump liable for sexually abusing Carroll and for defaming her in statements made in 2022 after she publicly repeated her allegations. Jurors awarded Carroll $2 million on the sexual abuse claim and roughly $3 million for defamation, bringing the judgment to $5 million.
Under New York's legal definition in effect at the time, the jury didn't find Trump liable for rape. It did, however, conclude that he was liable for sexual abuse, a distinction that became a central point in public debate surrounding the verdict.
Trump challenged the decision through the federal appeals process. The U.S. Court of Appeals upheld the judgment, and the case then reached the Supreme Court, where the justices declined in late June to review Trump's appeal.
The Supreme Court's refusal to take the case left the jury's verdict intact and cleared the way for Carroll's lawyers to seek release of the money held by the court. Interest accrued during the appeals, pushing the amount disbursed to more than $5.6 million.
Trump's attorneys argued that releasing the funds while other potential legal avenues were being considered could cause "irreparable harm." Judge Kaplan rejected that argument and ordered the money transferred to Carroll.
Carroll's legal team maintained that the conditions for releasing the funds had been met once the Supreme Court declined Trump's appeal. The court's action effectively exhausted the appeal path identified in the dispute over the $5 million judgment.
Trump has continued to reject Carroll's account despite the payment. A spokesperson for the president reiterated that Trump views the litigation as politically motivated, while Trump has repeatedly described the case as a "witch hunt."
The transfer marks the first time Trump has paid civil damages to Carroll, whose lawsuits have produced more than $88 million in judgments against him. Most of that amount remains contested in a separate case.
In January 2024, another federal jury ordered Trump to pay Carroll $83.3 million for defamatory statements he made in 2019 after she first publicly accused him of sexual assault. That award is substantially larger than the judgment Carroll has now collected.
Trump is continuing to challenge the $83.3 million verdict, and the litigation could ultimately return to the Supreme Court. The outcome will determine whether Carroll can collect the second judgment in addition to the more than $5.6 million she has already received.
