A federal judge in Manhattan has ordered that $5.8 million held in escrow be released to writer E. Jean Carroll, following a 2023 jury verdict finding President Donald Trump liable for sexually abusing and defaming her. Judge Lewis A. Kaplan issued the two-page ruling on Wednesday, citing the U.S. Supreme Court's decision last month to decline Trump's appeal of the verdict — a refusal in which none of the nine justices, including three appointed by Trump himself, registered a dissent. The original jury award of $5 million has grown to $5.8 million with accumulated interest.

The case stems from Carroll's account, described in a 2019 memoir, that Trump attacked her in the dressing room of Bergdorf Goodman, a luxury Manhattan department store, around 1996. The jury found Trump liable for sexual abuse and defamation, though it stopped short of concluding that rape had occurred. Trump, now 80, has consistently denied the allegations, insisting he never knew Carroll, now 82, a former magazine advice columnist, and accusing her of fabricating the story for financial and political gain. He once dismissed her claims by saying she was