Judge Allows E. Jean Carroll to Collect $5.8 Million from Trump After Verdict

A federal judge has ruled that writer E. Jean Carroll can collect $5.8 million awarded to her after a jury determined that former President Donald Trump sexually abused and defamed her. The ruling came on Wednesday following Trump’s unsuccessful appeal to halt the payment.

Trump has already placed the funds into an account. The U.S. Supreme Court recently upheld the 2023 civil verdict, allowing Judge Lewis A. Kaplan to authorize the release of the money. The original $5 million award increased due to accrued interest.

The jury found that Trump attacked Carroll in 1996 inside a Manhattan department store dressing room, and later defamed her after she publicly recounted the incident in a 2019 memoir. Trump’s legal team has indicated they will continue to contest the rulings and accused political adversaries of leveraging the legal system against him. They have filed an appeal with the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

Carroll’s legal representatives have not yet commented on the recent developments. The jury reached its verdict in a trial that Trump did not attend, after Carroll described how a seemingly playful encounter turned violent. Trump consistently denied knowing Carroll, now 82, and accused her of fabricating the story to sell books and further political agendas.

In a related case, Trump is disputing an $83 million defamation award granted to Carroll by another Manhattan jury after a trial scheduled for January 2024. During this trial, Trump briefly testified. Judge Kaplan instructed the jury to accept the findings of the prior jury and focus solely on the amount owed to Carroll for Trump’s remarks made during his presidency.

Trump’s attorneys argued that the judge unfairly restricted them from presenting arguments to the jury that disputed the occurrence of the encounter with Carroll.