E. Jean Carroll receives damages awarded in Trump defamation case

Writer E. Jean Carroll has been paid more than $5.6 million that she was owed as part of a civil jury verdict, which held U.S. President Donald Trump guilty of sexual abuse, according to a court filing on Tuesday. As per CNBC, $5,625,005.48 was disbursed to pay the law firm of Carroll’s attorney on July 9. The total amount includes the $5 million that was already awarded to Carroll in the jury’s May 2023 verdict and interest that accrued on that sum over three years.

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

A day before the money was disbursed, Trump's lawyers had tried to block Carroll from collecting the money, but their request was rejected by a U.S. appeals court in New York. On the same day, federal Judge Lewis Kaplan had ordered that the President must pay up and accused him of "stalling this case for years." Trump, however, had already deposited the money following the jury verdict three years ago. According to The Guardian, the money was deposited with the court's registry investment system (Cris), which acts as an escrow in case legal processes continue after a judgment.

At the time, both parties had agreed that the money would be disbursed after certain conditions were met, one of which was if the Supreme Court refused to hear his appeal on the decision. That is exactly what happened late in June, leaving the President with no route to challenge the 2023 verdict any longer. He, however, continues to claim that he had not done anything wrong and that he had never even met Carroll before.

President Trump was found guilty of sexually abusing Carroll in the Manhattan department store Bergdorf Goodman in the 1990s. The writer had also sued the President for defamation after she went public with the incident in 2019. In that case, a Manhattan jury ordered him to pay $83.3 million in damages in January 2024. Trump continues to challenge the civil defamation verdict at a lower federal appeals court.