E Jean Carroll receives $5.6m owed by Trump after court releases damages

Funds released from escrow account after Trump’s efforts to block sexual abuse and defamation award fail

A Manhattan federal court has released more than $5.6m that Donald Trump owes E Jean Carroll in her successful 2023 sexual abuse and defamation trial against him, records reveal.

The disbursement, made public in a 14 July entry on Carroll’s case docket, indicates that the funds were released by a court-held account on 9 July – one day after judge Lewis Kaplan ordered the release of this money. Trump has denied wrongdoing.

“Three years ago, a unanimous nine-person jury found President Trump liable for sexually assaulting and defaming E Jean Carroll. Today, we are pleased to report that she has received the damages payment the jury awarded her as a result of that verdict,” Roberta Kaplan, Carroll’s lead lawyer, said in a statement.

Trump has fought the release of this money since June 2023 – after the supreme court on 29 June denied his request to hear his appeal.

Carroll’s legal team promptly requested the judge to order the release of these funds following the supreme court’s decision. Trump’s legal team asked for more time to provide a response to Roberta Kaplan’s request, which the judge denied.

Both Carroll and Trump’s lawyers had agreed that he could deposit the jury award with the court’s registry investment system (Cris) while he pursued his appeals. Cris in effect functions as an escrow agent for funds awarded in litigation if legal processes continue after a judgment.

As such, if a defendant’s appeals efforts fail, this money is available to the victor. Because a defendant does not have this money in their possession, they cannot withhold these funds with financial or legal tactics.

When they agreed to the Cris arrangement, both Carroll and Trump’s lawyers also agreed that the money should be released upon certain legal developments, including a supreme court refusal to hear his appeal.

Before the supreme court’s rejection, Trump had mounted multiple unsuccessful appeals. Trump’s team insisted in court filings that Carroll’s team misinterpreted this provision and said that the money should remain in Cris since he was asking the supreme court to reconsider.

In a separate 2024 trial, a separate Manhattan federal court jury awarded Carroll $83.3m for defamatory comments Trump made about her while he was president. The two jury awards stem from a 2019 New York magazine feature that excerpting Carroll’s book, What Do We Need Men For? A Modest Proposal. Carroll claimed in this book that Trump sexually assaulted her about three decades prior in the fitting room of a luxury New York department store.

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