Former US President Donald Trump was found liable for the sexual abuse and defamation of US columnist E. Jean Carroll three years ago. A court had ordered him to pay damages. Three years after that order, Trump has finally paid Carroll more than $5 million in compensation. Carroll’s lawyers confirmed the news.
In a brief statement yesterday, Tuesday, Carroll’s lawyer Roberta Kaplan said, “We are pleased to announce today that she [Carroll] has received the damages awarded by the jury’s verdict.”
Trump had sought to delay the payment so he could petition the US Supreme Court to reconsider its decision not to hear his appeal in the case. However, the presiding judge ordered him to pay the damages last week.
A representative for Trump’s legal team declined to comment on the payment.
Carroll’s lawyers stated that she received a total of more than $5.62 million. This amount includes the $5 million in damages awarded by the jury and the interest accrued during the appeal process.
Carroll, currently 82 years old, is a former magazine columnist. She alleged that Trump sexually assaulted her in a dressing room at the Bergdorf Goodman department store in Manhattan during the mid-1990s.
In 2022, Trump posted a denial of the allegations against him on his social media platform, Truth Social. Carroll alleged that Trump defamed her through that post.
In 2023, a New York jury unanimously ruled in favor of Carroll and ordered that she be awarded damages. Trump, however, has denied the allegations from the very beginning.
Shortly after the verdict was announced, Trump deposited the damages into a court-controlled account. The funds remained there pending the conclusion of the appeal process. Trump’s lawyers criticized the judge’s order to pay damages, labeling the case a “fraud” and “politically motivated.” They claimed that Democrats had funded the lawsuit.
Additionally, Trump repeatedly alleged that the judge in the civil case, Lewis Kaplan, admitted evidence that prejudiced the jury against him.
Last year, a federal appeals court upheld the jury’s verdict. The court stated that Judge Kaplan had not committed any legal errors that would warrant a retrial.
Last month, the U.S. Supreme Court also declined to hear Trump’s appeal to reconsider the case, thereby clearing the way for the damages to be paid to Carroll. Welcoming the outcome at the time, Carroll wrote on her Substack blog, “We won!”
Carroll further wrote, “This victory is for every woman in the world.”
Meanwhile, Trump has also appealed a separate verdict—in which a jury found him liable for defamation in 2024 and ordered him to pay approximately $84 million in damages to Carroll. However, a panel of federal judges dismissed that appeal last year as well.
