A federal judge ruled Wednesday that E. Jean Carroll can collect the $5.8 million that has been held in escrow since a jury found President Donald Trump liable of sexual abuse and defamation against her, according to The Associated Press. Trump’s lawyers
immediately sought to stop the payment so they could appeal the decision.
Trump was found liable in a 2023 civil trial, which Trump did not attend, related to Carroll’s accusation that Trump attacked her in 1996 in a department store dressing room. She was able to sue Trump when New York opened up a window for survivors of sexual abuse to file suits after the statute of limitations.
Carroll, now 82, alleged Trump had defamed her after she published her account of what happened in a 2019 memoir. The verdict led to her being awarded $5 million, which has grown with interest. The U.S. Supreme Court recently decided that the verdict should stand, which paved the way to Judge Lewis A. Kaplan’s decision this week.
Reps for Carroll and Trump did not immediately respond to Rolling Stone’s requests for comment.
Carroll told the jury in 2023 that what began as a friendly encounter at a department store turned scary. Trump said he never met Carroll and called her “not my type” in an interview.
In a separate matter, Trump is appealing another judgment of $83 million due to Carroll for defamation, the result of a 2024 Manhattan trial where Judge Kaplan instructed the jury to accept the previous jury’s decision and determine what Trump owed for comments made during his presidency. The president’s lawyers claimed that blocked them from defending him. They are appealing, and the DOJ is reportedly pushing the Supreme Court to make the federal government the liable party in the matter.
In Ask E. Jean, a documentary released this past spring, Carroll talked about suing Trump. “He called me a liar, and I couldn’t let it stand,” she said.
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