In a battle of endurance that has spanned years, writer E. Jean Carroll has finally received a long-awaited financial payout from former President Donald Trump. On Monday, court records confirmed that a total of $5,625,005.48—the original $5 million jury award plus accumulated interest—was officially disbursed to Carroll and her legal team. This milestone comes after Trump exhausted nearly every legal avenue to delay, reduce, or altogether avoid paying the writer. For Carroll, who first accused Trump of sexually assaulting her in a Manhattan department store dressing room in the 1990s, the transfer represents a tangible, hard-fought victory after enduring years of public denial and intense personal scrutiny.
The payment marks the culmination of a high-stakes civil trial from May 2023. Under New York’s Adult Survivors Act, which temporarily opened a window for survivors to file civil lawsuits after the statute of limitations had expired, Carroll sued Trump for sexual assault and deformation. A federal jury ultimately found Trump liable for sexually abusing and defaming Carroll, though they stopped short of finding him liable for rape. Ever since that verdict, Trump’s defense team has kept the money tied up in court through a series of appeals, fighting the ruling all the way to the Supreme Court. However, the nation’s highest court refused to take up the case, paving the way for the funds to finally be released.
In the final days leading up to the payout, Trump’s lawyers made a last-ditch effort to keep the money on hold, arguing that the former president was still considering a highly unusual petition for the Supreme Court to reconsider its refusal. U.S. District Judge Lewis A. Kaplan, who has presided over the litigation, firmly shut down this maneuver, dryly noting that successful petitions of this nature are “extremely rare birds” and criticizing Trump for stalling the case for years. An appeals court fast-tracked the denial, allowing the funds to flow directly into Carroll’s account. While Trump can still technically ask the justices to reconsider, and the funds must technically remain in Carroll’s accounts unspent during this long-shot process, his legal options to block the transaction have effectively run out.
Reacting to the news, Carroll’s lead attorney, Roberta Kaplan, expressed deep satisfaction, stating she was pleased to report that her client had finally received the damages she was rightfully awarded by a jury of her peers. On the other side, Trump’s legal team remained defiant, continuing to dismiss the entire litigation as a politically motivated “hoax” and vowing that the former president “will keep winning against Liberal Lawfare.” Financially speaking, the $5.6 million payment is barely a scratch on the surface for Trump. According to Forbes, Trump’s net worth hovers around $6.3 billion, meaning this payout represents only a minuscule fraction of his total wealth, though the symbolic weight of the payment remains immense.
However, Trump’s legal and financial headaches regarding E. Jean Carroll are far from over. This $5.6 million payout comes from the second lawsuit Carroll filed, which went to trial first. A separate, initial defamation lawsuit—sparked by Trump’s disparaging public comments about Carroll in 2019 when she first went public—resulted in a staggering $83.3 million jury verdict against him in January 2024. Because the first jury had already established that Trump was liable for assault and defamation, the second jury only had to decide the financial damages. This massive eight-figure judgement is currently frozen as Trump continues to appeal it, with his attorneys signaling they will once again ask the Supreme Court to intervene.
Ultimately, this ongoing legal saga has reshaped the landscape of public accountability for powerful figures. Despite being ordered to pay tens of millions of dollars, Trump has continued to publicly attack Carroll on the campaign trail and in media appearances, leading her legal team to hint that further defamation lawsuits could still be on the horizon. For now, the transfer of over $5.6 million serves as a monumental milestone in a grueling legal marathon. It stands as a historic moment where a private citizen successfully held a former commander-in-chief accountable in a court of law, proving that even the most powerful figures must eventually answer to the justice system.
