Writer tells Trump to pay after high court appeal fails
Advice columnist E Jean Carroll asked the judge to order President Donald Trump to pay her $5 million for a jury verdict that concluded Trump sexually assaulted her in the 1990s and defamed her after she publicly disclosed the 2019 assault.
Carroll’s attorneys filed documents in Manhattan federal court saying Trump unfairly sought to further delay the release of the money after the Supreme Court declined Monday to hear his appeal of the 2023 civil jury verdict.
The sum had risen to about $US5.8 million ($8.4 million) with interest and should be ordered paid by the court, the lawyers wrote, and said Trump had continued his slanderous attacks on Carroll as his lawyers considered asking the high court to reconsider its decision.
The jury reached its verdict at a trial in which Trump did not attend, after Carroll testified that she had been sexually harassed by Trump in the spring of 1996 after a flirtatious and friendly chance encounter between them in a dressing room at a luxury Manhattan department store turned violent.
Carroll, 82, first spoke about the attack in 2019, when Trump was president. He repeatedly insisted that he never knew Carroll.
He also accused her of trying to sell books at his own expense and of having political motives.
Trump vowed to continue fighting what he called the “Arms and Civil Case” after learning of the Supreme Court’s rejection on social media on Monday.
They said Trump’s lawyers contacted Carroll’s lawyers minutes after Trump issued a response to the high court’s decision and asked for the payment to be delayed while the Supreme Court was asked to reconsider its decision.
However, Carroll’s lawyers stated in their petition to the court that there was no reason to delay the payment, especially since the Supreme Court did not express any disagreement in its decision not to hear the case.
“To date, Carroll has agreed to Defendant’s many requests to defer payment owed to him. Given his extraordinary efforts to avoid such payments and the complete rejection of each of those efforts, that cooperation ends today. It is time to pay Carroll,” they wrote.
Trump’s lawyers did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Trump is also appealing the $83 million defamation award awarded to Carroll by a separate Manhattan jury following a January 2024 trial in which Trump briefly testified.
1800 RESPECT (1800 737 732)
National Sexual Abuse and Resolution Support Service 1800 211 028
