US President Donald Trump has paid writer E. Jean Carroll more than $5.6 million after exhausting a major avenue of appeal against a civil verdict that found him liable for sexually abusing and defaming her. The payment covers the original $5 million damages award and interest accumulated while the case remained under appeal.
Trump Carroll payment released after court order
Federal court records released on Tuesday showed that the money had been transferred from a court-supervised account to Carroll’s lawyers. US District Judge Lewis Kaplan had authorised the release after the conditions governing the deposited funds were satisfied.
Trump placed the money in the court’s registry investment system while challenging the May 2023 verdict. The account protected the judgment during the appeal process and accumulated interest, raising the total payment to more than $5.6 million.
Carroll’s attorney, Roberta Kaplan, confirmed that her client had received the damages awarded by the jury. She noted that a unanimous nine-member jury had found Trump liable three years earlier and said the payment completed the financial obligation arising from that verdict.
Supreme Court declines Trump appeal
The disbursement followed the US Supreme Court’s June 29, 2026, decision declining to hear Trump’s appeal. That action left the lower-court judgment in place, although Trump subsequently pursued an additional request for rehearing.
Trump’s lawyers also asked a federal appeals court to prevent the immediate release of the court funds. They argued that Trump could suffer irreparable harm if Carroll donated or transferred the money because recovering it later could become difficult. Carroll’s legal team said the award would instead be placed in an interest-bearing retirement account.
Judge Kaplan rejected the effort to delay the payment, clearing the way for the court-supervised funds to be transferred. The payment resolves the $5 million judgment from the 2023 civil verdict but does not end all litigation between Carroll and Trump.
Civil verdict found Trump liable for sexual abuse
Carroll, an 82-year-old former journalist and advice columnist, accused Trump of attacking her in a dressing room at a New York department store in the 1990s. She later filed claims under a New York law that temporarily allowed survivors to pursue civil cases involving older allegations.
In May 2023, the federal jury found Trump liable for sexual abuse and for defaming Carroll by denying her allegation. The proceeding was a civil case rather than a criminal prosecution. The jury awarded Carroll a total of $5 million in compensatory and punitive damages.
The jury did not find Trump liable for rape under the specific legal definition included in its instructions. Judge Kaplan later wrote that the evidence supported Carroll’s description under the broader, commonly understood meaning of that term. For accurate legal reporting, however, the verdict itself should be described as a finding of liability for sexual abuse and defamation.
Trump continues to deny Carroll’s allegation
Trump has repeatedly denied Carroll’s accusation and maintained that he did not know her. He has described the case as a politically motivated hoax and criticised the proceedings as an example of lawfare.
A spokesperson for Trump’s legal team repeated those objections after the judge approved the disbursement, calling the Carroll litigation part of politically driven legal action against the president. The statement did not alter the enforceable civil judgment.
Trump is separately challenging an $83.3 million defamation award issued to Carroll in 2024. That judgment arose from different defamatory statements and is not included in the newly released $5.6 million payment.
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