NEW YORK — A federal judge on Wednesday ordered the release of $5.8 million held in escrow to writer E. Jean Carroll after the U.S. Supreme Court allowed a 2023 civil verdict against President Donald Trump to stand, while Trump’s lawyers immediately sought to block the payment pending appeal.
Judge Lewis A. Kaplan ruled that Carroll could collect the funds, which Trump had deposited into an escrow account after a jury found him liable for sexually abusing and defaming her. The award increased from the original $5 million after interest accrued.
The U.S. Supreme Court recently declined to disturb the 2023 verdict, allowing Kaplan to authorize the release of the money.
Trump’s attorneys asked the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to stop the payment while they continue to appeal the case. They also accused Trump’s political opponents of using the legal system against him.
A jury found in 2023 that Trump sexually abused Carroll in 1996 in the dressing room of a Manhattan department store and defamed her after she described the incident in a 2019 memoir. Trump denied the allegations and said he did not know Carroll.
Carroll filed the lawsuit after New York enacted a law allowing survivors of sexual abuse to file civil claims over incidents that occurred years earlier.
Trump is also appealing a separate $83 million defamation award that another Manhattan jury granted Carroll in 2024.
During that trial, Kaplan instructed jurors to accept the findings of the 2023 verdict and determine only the amount of damages related to statements Trump made while he was president.
Trump’s lawyers argued that Kaplan prevented them from telling jurors that the alleged encounter never occurred.
When the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals declined to rehear Trump’s appeal of the $83 million award, Circuit Judge Denny Chin wrote that Trump repeatedly claimed Carroll fabricated her allegations for political and financial reasons and suggested she was not attractive enough for him to assault.
Chin wrote that Trump’s statements subjected Carroll to harassment, humiliation, death threats and fears for her safety, and noted that Trump continued making public statements about Carroll during and after the federal trials.
