Trump Appealed The Ruling in The Sexual Assault Lawsuit Started By E. Jean Carroll. Now He Has Paid Her Millions

Writer E. Jean Carroll has received more than $5.6 million from President Donald Trump, bringing to a close one chapter of the years-long legal battle stemming from a jury's 2023 finding that Trump sexually abused and defamed her.

The payment includes the original $5 million judgment plus accrued interest after Trump's appeals were exhausted. The money was released from a federal court registry after the U.S. Supreme Court declined in late June to hear Trump's appeal of the 2023 verdict, leaving intact the jury's decision.

U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan subsequently ordered the funds disbursed, rejecting Trump's request to keep the money in escrow while he pursued additional legal avenues. Carroll's attorney, Roberta Kaplan, confirmed to CNBC that the payment had been received, marking the first time Trump has paid damages awarded to Carroll in the litigation that has resulted in more than $88 million in civil judgments against him.

The underlying case centered on Carroll's accusation that Trump sexually assaulted her in a dressing room at the Bergdorf Goodman department store in Manhattan during the mid-1990s. Trump consistently denied the allegation and claimed he had never assaulted Carroll.

In May 2023, a nine-member federal jury concluded that Trump was liable for sexually abusing Carroll and for defaming her through statements made in 2022 after she publicly repeated her allegations. The jury awarded Carroll $2 million for the sexual abuse claim and roughly $3 million for defamation, for a total of $5 million in damages.

Under New York's legal definition at the time, the jury did not find Trump liable for rape, but did find him liable for sexual abuse. Trump appealed the verdict through multiple levels of the federal court system. The U.S. Court of Appeals upheld the judgment, and after the Supreme Court declined to review the case, the payment became due.

Interest accumulated while the money remained in escrow, increasing the total amount released to more than $5.6 million. Trump's legal team argued that releasing the money before all potential legal challenges were exhausted could cause "irreparable harm," but Judge Kaplan rejected that argument.

Carroll's lawyers countered that the conditions for releasing the funds had been satisfied once the Supreme Court declined the appeal. Despite making the payment, Trump has continued to deny Carroll's allegations.

A spokesperson for the president reiterated that Trump considers the case politically motivated and has repeatedly described it as a "witch hunt." Throughout the litigation, Trump has maintained that Carroll fabricated the claims for political and personal reasons.

The $5.6 million payment does not end the broader legal dispute between the two. In a separate defamation case concluded in January 2024, another federal jury ordered Trump to pay Carroll $83.3 million for statements he made in 2019 after she first publicly accused him of sexual assault.

Trump is continuing to challenge that much larger judgment, and the case could ultimately return to the U.S. Supreme Court. According to Carroll, she plans to keep the newly released funds in an interest-bearing retirement account while the remaining litigation proceeds. The payment represents the first civil damages Trump has paid to Carroll, even as the larger $83.3 million judgment remains tied up in ongoing appeals.