Judge orders Trump to pay E. Jean Carroll damages

A judge has ordered US President Donald Trump to pay writer E. Jean Carroll $5 million after a civil jury found that he sexually assaulted and defamed her.

Last week, the US Supreme Court refused to hear Trump's appeal against the original May 2023 judgment ordering him to pay $2m in damages for sexual assault and $3m for defamatory statements.

Carroll, a former journalist and columnist who is now 82, accused the president of assaulting her in a dressing room of a New York department store in 1996.

When the allegations were published in a 2019 book, Mr Trump called her a "nut job" and claimed she had fabricated her case.

By declining to hear the appeal, the Supreme Court made the judgment final. Federal judge Lewis Kaplan ordered that the $5m Mr Trump had been required to deposit with the court be paid.

The ruling also requires payment of unspecified accrued interest.

In a separate defamation case in New York, Mr Trump was ordered to pay $83.3 million to Ms Carroll. That judgment was upheld on appeal, but its enforcement remains suspended.

In late May, US media reported that Ms Carroll herself was under criminal investigation, described as the latest example of Mr Trump's willingness to use the justice system against his enemies.

The investigation, opened by Justice Department prosecutors, seeks to determine if Ms Carroll lied under oath during several depositions against Mr Trump, CNN and The New York Times reported.