A federal judge has ordered U.S. President Donald Trump to pay $5.8 million in compensation to writer E. Jean Carroll after the Supreme Court rejected his request to overturn a jury award related to allegations of sexual assault and defamation.
The payment includes the original compensation amount of around $5 million awarded in 2023, along with accumulated interest, according to the court ruling. Trump’s lawyers appealed the decision on Wednesday in an attempt to prevent the funds from being transferred to Carroll.
Trump had already deposited the money into an account following the 2023 ruling by a lower court, which found that he was liable for sexually abusing Carroll and defaming her after she publicly accused him of the assault. Federal Judge Lewis A. Kaplan ordered that the funds be released to Carroll, who is now 82 years old.
The case stems from an incident that Carroll said occurred in 1996 in a fitting room at the Bergdorf Goodman department store in Manhattan. She later described the alleged assault in a memoir published during Trump’s first presidential term. After the publication of her account, Trump denied the allegations and made statements about Carroll that led her to file lawsuits accusing him of defamation.
A jury found Trump liable in the first case, concluding that Carroll had proven her claim of sexual abuse and that Trump had defamed her by publicly attacking her credibility. Carroll also filed a separate defamation case related to comments Trump made in 2019 after the allegations became public.
During the trial, Trump argued that the proceedings were unfair and challenged the decision to allow jurors to hear evidence related to other allegations of sexual misconduct against him. Judges rejected those arguments.
Trump did not attend the trial and continued to deny knowing Carroll. He accused her of seeking publicity and financial gain through her claims, while also alleging that her accusations were politically motivated. He has never admitted the allegations and has continued to maintain that Carroll’s claims are false.
The Supreme Court recently rejected Trump’s appeal seeking to overturn the $5 million judgment, allowing the lower court’s decision to move forward. Following that ruling, Carroll has also requested payment of a separate $83 million defamation award from another trial.
That second case involved statements Trump made in 2019 after Carroll’s allegations of sexual assault became public. A jury in January 2024 ordered Trump to pay the additional compensation for those remarks.
Trump’s legal team has appealed the $83 million judgment as well, leaving both cases subject to ongoing legal proceedings. The latest ruling, however, clears the way for Carroll to receive the funds from the first judgment.
