Former US president Donald J. Trump speaks during a press conference in the lobby of Trump Tower in New York, New York, USA, 06 September 2024. Trump discussed a hearing he attended earlier in the morning to appeal the recent 5 million USD jury verdict against Trump that found him liable of sexually abusing writer E. Jean Carroll. EPA-EFE/JUSTIN LANE By Jonathan Stempel
Over Trump’s objections, the money was released to Carroll’s law firm on Monday, five days after U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan authorized the disbursement from a court-supervised account.
The payout represents the original $5 million civil verdict, plus interest.
It is the first time Trump has been forced to pay Carroll. She has won $88.3 million of civil verdicts against the president in the seven years since he first denied having raped her around 1996 in a Bergdorf Goodman department store dressing room in Manhattan.
Trump has branded Carroll’s claims a hoax, denied he knew her, said she made up the alleged rape to help sell her memoir, and derided her case as “weaponization and lawfare.” Last month, the U.S. Supreme Court rejected Trump’s appeal from the $5 million verdict.
A spokesperson for Trump’s legal team on Tuesday repeated a statement made after Kaplan’s decision: “The American People stand with President Trump as they demand an immediate end to all of the Witch Hunts, including the Democrat-funded travesty of the Carroll Hoaxes.”
TRUMP WARNED OF ‘IRREPARABLE HARM’
Last week, Trump’s lawyer asked a federal appeals court to block a disbursement, saying the president would suffer “irreparable harm” if Carroll fulfilled her stated intention to give away the money because the money likely could not be recovered.
The lawyer also said it did not matter that Carroll now assures she will put the money in an interest-bearing account to fund her retirement, because she could still give it away.
Jurors awarded Carroll $5 million based on a Trump denial in 2022, though they did not find that Trump raped her.
A different jury in 2024 ordered Trump to pay Carroll $83.3 million, based on his original 2019 denial during his first White House term.
Trump is expected to appeal that verdict to the Supreme Court.
Carroll’s lawyer Roberta Kaplan, who is not related to the judge, said in a statement: “Three years ago, a unanimous nine-person jury found President Trump liable for sexually assaulting and defaming E. Jean Carroll. We are pleased to report that she has received the damages payment the jury awarded her.”
(Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York; Editing by Matthew Lewis)