Trump dealt major legal blow as judge clears the way for $5.8 million payout to E. Jean Carroll

In a major blow to U.S. President Donald Trump, a federal judge has ordered the release of $5.8 million receivable by E. Jean Carroll on Wednesday. In 2023, a jury found President Trump guilty of sexually abusing Caroll in 1996 and later defaming her when he denied the allegations. The court order comes after the Supreme Court refused last week to hear the President’s appeal against the ruling. U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan ordered the release of the money from a court escrow account, as per NBC News.

Trump was initially ordered to pay $5 million to Caroll, but interest accrued over time pushed the figure close to $6 million. The President's attorneys had sought to delay the payments by what would have been several months while they asked the high court to reconsider its decision. "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," a spokesperson from the President's legal team said after Kaplan delivered his verdict.

Carroll's lawyers alleged in a court filing last week that the POTUS was trying to "buy time so he can try to concoct some new basis to put off paying Plaintiff." According to The Guardian, Trump had deposited the $5 million jury award, as well as 11% interest, into a court-held account around six weeks after Carroll's courtroom victory in 2023. That is not the only legal victory that she has won against the U.S. President.

In 2024, a jury awarded her an $83.3 million judgment. Trump had appealed the verdict but was turned down by a federal court earlier this year. However, the President's attorneys told the Supreme Court that it would seek permission to challenge that case in the high court as well. After the Supreme Court refused to review the 2023 judgment, Trump took to Truth Social and vowed to "continue the fight against this Weaponization and Lawfare Case against me."

"This Case is really against the United States of America, and all it stands for, and should never be allowed to happen to another President, or Candidate to be! New York State created a Law, for an instant speck of time, going back many decades, in order to wrongfully "nab" me. It was tailor-made, and this Injustice cannot be allowed to stand!" he added. 

As far as the recent judgment was concerned, Trump's lawyers believe that Judge Kaplan did not give them a fair chance to make an important point. According to the Associated Press, the judge required the jury to accept the judgment of the previous jury and determine how much money the U.S. President owed Carroll. His lawyers argued that by setting such a precedent, the court had barred them from telling the jury that the encounter between Trump and Carroll never happened.