E. Jean Carroll cleared to collect USD 5.8 million from Trump escrow

A US appeals judge has allowed E. Jean Carroll to collect USD 5.8 million held in escrow after her civil win against Donald Trump. The order follows the Supreme Court's refusal to disturb the verdict and keeps pressure on Trump as he pursues further appeals.

In Short

• The civil award rose from USD 5 million with accrued interest
• Trump deposited the money in escrow after the 2023 jury verdict
• The case stemmed from Carroll's allegation of a 1996 Manhattan assault

A federal judge in the US has ruled that writer E. Jean Carroll can collect USD 5.8 million that has been held in escrow since a jury found that President Donald Trump sexually abused and defamed her. Trump’s lawyers immediately appealed, but their request for an emergency order to block the payment was rejected.

The ruling follows a recent US Supreme Court decision to let the civil verdict stand. Trump had deposited the money shortly after the 2023 jury verdict, and the original USD 5 million award has since increased with interest.

The jury found that Trump attacked Carroll in 1996 in the dressing room of a luxury Manhattan department store and later defamed her after she wrote about it in a 2019 memoir during his first term as president. Trump had called her allegations false and said in an interview, "she’s not my type".

On Wednesday, Trump’s lawyers said they would continue their appeal and accused his political opponents of using the legal system against him. In appellate court filings, they argued that Judge Lewis A. Kaplan’s decision should not take effect because Trump has asked the Supreme Court to reconsider its decision.

Later in the day, Judge Eunice C. Lee of the 2nd US Circuit Court of Appeals rejected their request to stop the money from being transferred to Carroll.

In a filing before the appellate court, Carroll’s lawyers said, "It is time for this case to come to an end." They added, "Carroll has waited more than three years for a jury’s verdict to be paid. She should not have to wait any longer."

The verdict in the first trial, which Trump did not attend, came after Carroll testified that what began as a flirtatious and friendly chance encounter at the department store turned violent. Trump has maintained that he never knew Carroll, now 82 and a former advice columnist. He accused her of trying to sell books at his expense and of having political motives.

Carroll sued Trump after New York changed its laws to give sexual abuse survivors a fresh chance to sue over attacks that happened in the distant past. In a memorandum explaining his decision, Kaplan wrote that Trump "has been stalling this case for years" and added, "It is time for him to do ‘equity’ and pay the judgment."

Trump is also appealing a separate USD 83 million defamation award granted to Carroll by another Manhattan jury after a 2024 trial in which he briefly testified. In that case, Kaplan told the jury to accept the findings of the earlier jury and decide only how much money, if any, Trump owed Carroll for comments he made about her while he was president.

Trump’s lawyers said the judge had unfairly prevented Trump and his legal team from telling the jury that the encounter with Carroll never happened. But when the 2nd Circuit declined to let all of its judges rehear the appeal in the USD 83 million case, Circuit Judge Denny Chin wrote that Trump had repeatedly said over many years that Carroll lied for political and financial gain and had suggested she was too unattractive for him to have sexually assaulted her.

Chin wrote, "As a result of Trump’s statements, Carroll was harassed and humiliated, subjected to death threats, and feared for her physical safety for years." He added, "And Trump showed no remorse, continuing his attacks against Carroll during and after two federal trials, and even proclaiming two days into the Carroll I trial that he would continue to defame her a thousand times."

With the emergency bid now rejected, the latest ruling clears the way for Carroll to receive the USD 5.8 million held in escrow, while Trump continues to contest both that judgment and the separate USD 83 million defamation award.

With PTI Inputs

- Ends