Judge Orders Payment to E Jean Carroll
A judge has mandated that writer E Jean Carroll receive the over $5 million (£3.7 million) US President Donald Trump owes her following a civil case in which he was found liable for sexual abuse and defamation three years ago.
On Wednesday, Judge Lewis Kaplan directed a clerk to release the funds, including interest, from an account where Trump had deposited the money after the ruling.
Trump had sought to delay the $5.8 million payment to request the Supreme Court reconsider its refusal to hear an appeal related to the case.
Background of the Case
In May 2023, a New York jury awarded Carroll damages based on her claim that Trump sexually assaulted her in the 1990s and subsequently labeled the incident a hoax on social media. Trump has denied these allegations.
The BBC has reached out to Trump's legal representatives for comment.
Carroll, an 82-year-old former magazine columnist, accused Trump of attacking her in the mid-1990s in a dressing room at the Bergdorf Goodman department store in Manhattan. She also cited a 2022 post on Truth Social in which Trump denied her allegations, which she claimed amounted to defamation.
Following the verdict, Trump placed the damages into a court-controlled account, where the funds remained during the appeals process. The judge did not specify when the money would be disbursed to Carroll.
Legal Proceedings and Appeals
President Trump has repeatedly asserted that Judge Kaplan, who presided over the civil trial, improperly allowed evidence that negatively influenced the jury's perception of him.
A federal appeals court upheld the jury's verdict last year, stating that Kaplan did not commit errors warranting a new trial.
Trump has also appealed a separate 2024 jury decision that found him liable for defaming Carroll in another instance, which resulted in an award of nearly $84 million to her. A panel of federal judges denied his appeal against that ruling last year.
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