A federal court has released more than $5.6 million to writer E. Jean Carroll, representing a $5 million jury award plus interest, after the U.S. Supreme Court declined to take up President Donald Trump’s appeal in her 2023 sexual abuse and defamation case.
Court records show that $5.625 million—the original award plus accrued interest—was released to Carroll on July 9 from funds that had been held in the court’s registry during Trump’s appeals.
U.S. District Judge Lewis A. Kaplan ordered the disbursement after the Supreme Court declined to review Trump’s challenge to the 2023 verdict, clearing the way for the escrowed money to be paid out.
In a statement, Carroll’s attorney Roberta Kaplan said a unanimous jury found Trump liable and that Carroll has now received the damages awarded in that case.
Trump has denied Carroll’s allegations and has argued that the litigation is politically motivated. In a post on Truth Social after the Supreme Court action, he criticized the case and said he would continue fighting it.
A separate case remains unresolved: Trump is still appealing an $83.3 million verdict entered after a January 2024 trial in which a jury found he defamed Carroll in connection with earlier public denials. That judgment remains in the appeals process, and Trump has indicated he plans to seek Supreme Court review.
