US judge orders Trump's $5m damages paid to E Jean Carroll

A judge has mandated the release of more than $5 million in damages, plus interest, to writer E. Jean Carroll, stemming from a civil case where Donald Trump was found liable for sexual abuse and defamation. Judge Lewis Kaplan ordered on Wednesday that the funds, deposited by Trump into an account after the ruling, be paid to Carroll.

Trump had been attempting to postpone the $5.8 million payment, seeking the Supreme Court's reconsideration of its decision not to hear his appeal. In May 2023, a New York jury awarded Carroll the damages, concluding Trump sexually assaulted her in the 1990s and later defamed her by calling the incident a hoax. Trump has consistently denied the allegations.

Carroll, an 82-year-old former magazine columnist, accused Trump of attacking her in a Bergdorf Goodman dressing room in the mid-1990s. She also alleged he defamed her in a 2022 Truth Social post denying her claims. Trump placed the awarded damages into a court-controlled account during the appeals process. The judge did not specify when Carroll would receive the funds.

Trump has argued that the trial judge, Lewis Kaplan, improperly allowed prejudicial evidence. However, a federal appeals court affirmed the jury's verdict last year, stating Kaplan made no errors warranting a new trial. Trump is also appealing a separate 2024 jury decision that found him liable for defaming Carroll and awarded her nearly $84 million, an appeal that a panel of federal judges denied last year.