Writer and former advice columnist E. Jean Carroll is pressing a federal court to order President Donald Trump to immediately pay nearly $5.8 million in damages, following the US Supreme Court's refusal on Monday to hear his appeal of a 2023 civil jury verdict. Carroll's lawyers filed papers in Manhattan federal court on Tuesday, arguing that after four years of litigation and repeated delays, there is no longer any justification for withholding payment.
The underlying verdict dates to May 2023, when a New York jury found Trump liable for sexually abusing and defaming Carroll, awarding her $5 million in damages. Carroll, now 82, had alleged that Trump attacked her in a dressing room at Bergdorf Goodman, a luxury department store in midtown Manhattan, in spring 1996, and that he subsequently damaged her reputation by publicly branding her allegations a hoax. Trump denied the claims entirely, saying Carroll was not his type and that the incident never occurred. The original $5 million award has grown to approximately $5.8 million with accumulated interest.
Federal Judge Lewis Kaplan — who is unrelated to Carroll's lead attorney, Roberta Kaplan — agreed on Wednesday to allow Carroll to pursue payment on an expedited basis, ordering Trump's legal team to respond no later than 7 July. Carroll's lawyers argued in their filing that Trump had resumed defamatory attacks against their client even as his attorneys were privately requesting yet another delay, contacting Carroll's team within minutes of Trump posting on Truth Social to denounce the Supreme Court's decision. "To date, Carroll has agreed to each of Defendant's many requests to delay the payment he owes her," the filing states. "Given the extraordinary lengths he has taken to avoid such payments and that each of those efforts has been denied in full, that cooperation ends today. It is time for him to pay Carroll."
Trump, for his part, vowed on Truth Social to keep fighting what he called a "Weaponization and Lawfare Case," describing the lawsuit as an attack not just on him but on the United States itself. His appeals have centred on the argument that Judge Kaplan improperly allowed evidence of other alleged sexual misconduct to be presented, influencing the jury against him. A federal appeals court rejected that argument last year, finding no errors that would warrant a new trial.
This case is only one part of Carroll's ongoing legal battle with Trump. A separate Manhattan jury in January 2024 awarded her $83.3 million after finding Trump liable for defamation in a distinct instance; Trump has appealed that verdict as well, and that appeal has not yet reached the Supreme Court. The latest development signals a potential turning point in the first case, however, with Carroll's legal team signalling it will no longer accommodate further delay after exhausting every level of the federal court system.