The order comes three years after a jury found President Trump sexually abused and defamed the writer.
Published July 8, 2026
A federal judge has ruled that author E. Jean Carroll can recover more than $5.8 million she was ordered to pay after a jury found President Donald Trump sexually abused and defamed her, paving the way for the money to be released after the U.S. Supreme Court rejected her appeal.
Judge Lewis A. Kaplan ruled Wednesday that Carroll can be paid the original $5 million award the jury awarded her, plus interest accrued since the 2023 verdict. Carroll’s lawyers had asked for the funds to be released after the Supreme Court refused to hear Trump’s appeal on June 29.
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“This is the end,” Roberta Kaplan, Carroll’s attorney, wrote in a court filing, adding, “It’s time for him to pay Carroll.”
Less than an hour after the judge issued his order, President Trump filed an appeal.
“The American people stand with President Trump in calling for an immediate end to all witch hunts, including the Democratic-funded farce of the Carroll hoax,” a spokesperson for Trump’s lawyers said in a statement.
Carroll first accused Trump in 2019, writing in her memoir that he sexually assaulted her in a dressing room at Manhattan’s Bergdorf Goodman department store in 1996. Trump insisted he had never met Carroll, accused her of lying to sell books or for political reasons, and called the claims a “hoax.”
Later that year, Ms. Carroll sued him for defamation over these comments, alleging that he had damaged her reputation by suggesting that she had lied for personal gain. She filed a second lawsuit in 2022, accusing Trump of assault/sexual abuse and defamation over another denial he posted on Truth Social in 2022, again claiming the allegations were a hoax.
In 2023, a jury found Trump liable for sexually abusing Carroll and defaming her through comments made in 2022. He did not hold Trump responsible for the rape.
A second jury awarded Trump $83.3 million in damages in 2024 after she first went public with allegations that she made defamatory comments in 2019 when Trump was president.
Trump continues to fight both verdicts.
After the Supreme Court refused to hear his appeal, he called the case a “sham lawsuit” and vowed to continue fighting what he described as “use of arms and law litigation.”
On Wednesday, Trump’s lawyers filed a petition asking the Supreme Court to reconsider its decision not to hear the appeal. They argued that Mr. Trump would suffer “irreparable harm” if the funds were disbursed because Mr. Carroll has said he intended to donate them, making it difficult to recover the funds if the verdict is later overturned.
Trump is also still appealing the $83.3 million judgment, arguing that his 2019 comments were made while he was president and are therefore protected by executive privilege. The Justice Department has also opened a criminal investigation against Carroll over whether he committed perjury during his testimony.
