Politics
A Judge Ordered Trump to Pay E. Jean Carroll $5.8 Million After Three Years of Stalling
By Mike Harper · July 9, 2026
The jury took less than three hours in 2023. The appeals have lasted three years. On Wednesday, a judge said it’s over.
US District Judge Lewis Kaplan ordered the immediate release of $5.8 million — the original $5 million verdict plus $800,000 in accrued interest — to E. Jean Carroll after rejecting Trump’s latest attempt to delay payment. The money has been sitting in a court-controlled escrow account since a unanimous federal jury found Trump liable for sexually abusing Carroll in a Manhattan department store in 1996 and defaming her when he denied it afterward.
Kaplan was blunt.
“Defendant has been stalling this case for years. A jury unanimously concluded that he sexually abused and defamed plaintiff and awarded her damages accordingly. The judgment on that verdict has been upheld on appeal. It’s time for him to ‘do equity’ and pay the judgment.”
Trump’s lawyers filed a notice of appeal within minutes of the order. They then sought an emergency stay from the Second Circuit Court of Appeals. The appellate court rejected the request the same day. The legal avenues for further delay are narrowing to a point.
The sequence that brought the case here: Carroll filed the lawsuit in 2022. The jury returned its verdict in May 2023 — finding that Trump “more likely than not” sexually assaulted Carroll by forcing his fingers inside her during a chance encounter at Bergdorf Goodman. Trump appealed. The Second Circuit upheld the verdict. Trump asked the Supreme Court to hear the case. On June 29, the Supreme Court declined without explanation or dissent. Trump then asked the Supreme Court to reconsider — what Kaplan called an “extremely rare bird” that almost never succeeds.
Trump’s lawyers argued that releasing the money would cause “irreparable harm” because Carroll “has repeatedly stated that she intends to give away all funds that she collects from him.” Carroll’s lawyer Roberta Kaplan called the delay tactics “gamesmanship.”
This is the smaller of two verdicts. In a separate 2024 trial covering additional defamatory statements Trump made about Carroll, a jury awarded her $83.3 million. Trump is expected to ask the Supreme Court to review that verdict as well. The deadline to file that petition is later this month.
Carroll, now 82, has been waiting since 2023 to receive the money a jury said she was owed. The judge said the waiting is done. Trump’s lawyers said they’ll keep fighting. The $5.8 million is being released.