Trump Ordered to Pay E. Jean Carroll More Than $5 Million in Defamation Case

A US judge has ordered that writer E. Jean Carroll receive the more than $5 million that US President Donald Trump owes her after he was found liable for sexually abusing and defaming her in a civil lawsuit.

Judge Lewis Kaplan ruled on Wednesday that the funds, along with accrued interest, should be released from a court-controlled account where Trump had deposited the money following the verdict.

The decision comes after Trump sought to delay the payment while attempting to persuade the US Supreme Court to reconsider its refusal to hear an appeal in the case. However, the judge’s latest order clears the way for Carroll to finally receive the compensation awarded to her more than three years after the legal battle began.

The case dates back to May 2023, when a New York jury concluded that Trump had sexually abused Carroll in the 1990s and later defamed her by publicly dismissing her allegations as a fabricated story. The jury awarded Carroll approximately $5.8 million in damages.

Carroll, a former magazine columnist now aged 82, accused Trump of attacking her inside a dressing room at the Bergdorf Goodman department store in Manhattan during the mid-1990s. She later filed a lawsuit after Trump denied the allegations on social media and described her claims as a hoax.

Throughout the legal proceedings, Trump consistently denied the accusations and maintained that he had been unfairly targeted. Following the latest ruling, a spokesperson for Trump’s legal team criticised the case and described it as another politically motivated attack against the president.

“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,” the spokesperson said in a statement.

The spokesperson also insisted that Trump would continue fighting what his supporters call “lawfare” while focusing on his political agenda and campaign priorities.

Trump has repeatedly argued that Judge Kaplan allowed evidence during the trial that unfairly influenced the jury against him. However, a federal appeals court last year upheld the verdict, stating that the trial judge had not made errors significant enough to justify a new trial.

The legal battle between Trump and Carroll is also far from over. The US president is separately appealing another verdict delivered in 2024, in which a jury found him liable for defaming Carroll again and ordered him to pay nearly $84 million in damages.

A panel of federal judges rejected Trump’s appeal in that case last year, leaving the substantial financial penalty in place while further legal options are considered.

The latest ruling marks another significant legal setback for Trump, who continues to face multiple court challenges even as he remains one of the most influential figures in American politics. For Carroll, the decision represents another major victory in her years-long fight for accountability and compensation.