E. Jean Carroll collects $5.63 million from Trump in sex abuse verdict, first payout after years of appeals

Writer E. Jean Carroll has collected nearly $5.63 million from Donald Trump, the first payment the U.S. president has been forced to make after a jury found him liable for sexual abuse and defamation in 2023. The disbursement, released to Carroll's law firm on Monday, comes after years of appeals by Trump's legal team and a recent rejection by the U.S. Supreme Court.

The payout

Court records filed on Tuesday show the money was released from a court-supervised account five days after U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan authorized the disbursement. The sum represents the original $5 million civil verdict plus three years of accrued interest, bringing the total to approximately $5.625 million. Trump's lawyers had asked a federal appeals court to block the payment, arguing the president would suffer "irreparable harm" if Carroll gave the money away, since it likely could not be recovered. The appeals court rebuffed the request.

Three years ago, a unanimous nine-person jury found President Trump liable for sexually assaulting and defaming E. Jean Carroll. Today, we are pleased to report that she has received the damages payment the jury awarded her.

The 2023 verdict

A federal jury in Manhattan awarded Carroll $5 million in damages in May 2023: $2 million for the sexual assault and $3 million for defamation. The jurors found Trump liable for sexually abusing Carroll and defaming her with a 2022 denial, though they did not find that he had raped her. Carroll had accused Trump of assaulting her in a Bergdorf Goodman department store dressing room in Manhattan around 1996. She first made the allegation public in a 2019 memoir and a New York Magazine essay.

Legal timeline

Trump's appeals prolonged the case for three years. His legal team branded Carroll's claims a hoax, and the president said she fabricated the alleged rape to sell her memoir. In June 2026, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear Trump's appeal from the $5 million verdict, making the judgment final. Judge Kaplan then ordered the release of the funds last week. Trump's lawyers subsequently attempted to delay payment by asking the Supreme Court to re-evaluate the appeal, a request that rarely succeeds.

Second verdict still pending

A separate defamation trial in 2024 produced a much larger award: a jury ordered Trump to pay Carroll $83.3 million, based on his original 2019 denial during his first White House term. Federal courts have upheld that verdict, but its enforcement remains suspended while Trump continues to appeal to the Supreme Court. Carroll has won a combined $88.3 million in civil verdicts against the president.

Reactions

A spokesperson for Trump's legal team repeated a previous statement on Tuesday: "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." Carroll has previously stated she intends to give the money to "something Trump hates." In recent court filings, Carroll's lawyers said she now plans to place the funds in an interest-bearing account for her retirement. The White House referred requests for comment to Trump's personal lawyers, who did not immediately respond.