Trump damages to be paid E. Jean Carroll, judge says
Author E. Jean Carroll arrives at the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New York on September 6, 2024, where former President Donald Trump will ask the federal appeals court to overturn the $5 million jury verdict that found him liable for sexual assault and defamation.
Adam Gray | Reuters
A New York federal judge on Wednesday awarded E. Jean Carroll $5 million-plus in damages, pursuant to a jury verdict that held President Donald Trump civilly liable for sexually harassing and defaming the author.
The decision came a day after Trump’s lawyers warned Judge Lewis Kaplan not to pay Carroll nearly $5.8 million from funds Trump deposited with the court three years ago to cover a May 2023 jury award.
In ordering the money he gave Wednesday to be paid to Carroll, Kaplan pointed to language in an agreement between Carroll and Trump that called for the money to be given to him if the Supreme Court denied his request to hear his appeal of the ruling in his favor.
The Supreme Court rejected Trump’s request on June 29.
Kaplan’s order defeated arguments by Trump’s lawyers that Carroll could not be paid unless the Supreme Court rejects the president’s new, long-term offer. reevaluation Petition requesting the high court to accept the appeal.
The Supreme Court rarely grants such requests after rejecting the initial application.
Shortly after Kaplan ordered the Manhattan District Court to release the funds to Carroll, Trump’s lawyers appealed the decision to the 2nd Circuit of the U.S. Court of Appeals.
A spokesperson for Trump’s legal team said in a statement on the order: “The American People stand with President Trump in demanding an immediate end to all Witch Hunts, including the Democrat-funded Carroll Hoaxes. President Trump will continue to win against Liberal Law while remaining focused on his mission to Make America Great Again.”
CNBC requested comment from Carroll’s lawyers regarding Kaplan’s order.
“Collection cannot begin while proceedings are ongoing in the Supreme Court, which is currently litigation,” Trump attorneys Josh Halpern and Michael Madaio told Kaplan in a filing Tuesday.
“Paragraph 8 [of the agreement] “The lawyers do not allow collection as long as the hearing petition remains unresolved,” he wrote.
Trump’s lawyers also argued that another reason Carroll hasn’t yet received money is because the agreement includes language requiring Trump to be repaid the money he deposited if the verdict is overturned.
Trump’s lawyers wrote that Carroll “has repeatedly stated that he intends to give away any funds he collects from himself and that once those funds are distributed to third parties, they are unlikely to be recovered.”
Trump’s new petition to the Supreme Court says a rehearing is necessary because Trump will soon ask the Supreme Court to hear arguments about whether Carroll has immunity in another lawsuit he filed over statements she made about him while he was president.
Trump also lost the case in Manhattan federal court; where a jury in January 2024 awarded Carroll $83.3 million in damages for defaming Carroll when she denied his 2019 claim that he raped her at a New York store in the mid-1990s.
If he has immunity in this case, that could undercut the ruling in the other case that led to the $5 million award, lawyers said, because Carroll’s lawyers had presented evidence of the same statements at the other hearing, in addition to statements he made while he was not president in 2022.
Trump listed both decisions as liabilities in his 2025 financial disclosure report released on June 30.
Carroll’s lawyers argued in a court filing last week that he was automatically entitled to the award and accrued interest because the Supreme Court denied his petition for writ of certiorari, which would have led to a hearing on Trump’s appeal.
The court, which includes three judges appointed by Trump, did not express any opinion against this rejection and did not explain its reasons for rejecting Trump’s request.
In the lawsuit she filed on June 30, Carroll’s lawyer, Roberta Kaplan, asked Judge Kaplan, who is not related to her, to leave the money to the writer and said, “This is the end of the road.”
“It’s time to pay Carroll,” Roberta Kaplan wrote.
“A petition for rehearing would likely fail,” Kaplan wrote. “To require Carroll to endure any further delay while the defendant wishes to rehearse would be both grossly unfair and detrimental to the public interest.”
Kaplan filed a proposed order with the court on Tuesday that the money be paid from the court registry.
Carroll rushed to demand immediate payment, Trump’s lawyers said in a filing Tuesday night.
They pointed to language in the agreement the parties signed in 2023 stipulating that the court would withhold Trump’s money pending appeal.
“Paragraph 8 only allows for collection”[a]Trump’s lawyers noted that this happened after the latest of the “three stated appeals.”
“One of these events is the final denial of a petition for certiorari,” or the granting of an appellate hearing by the Supreme Court, the attorneys wrote.
“And another is for the Supreme Court to issue a decision after granting certification in connection with the Appeal,” Trump’s lawyers said.
“Both judgments confirm that collection cannot commence while proceedings are ongoing before the Supreme Court, which is the current situation.”
