The judge ordered the money released, bringing one chapter to a close.
After years of courtroom battles spanning two civil trials and multiple appeals, a federal judge has ordered that $5.8 million be released to writer E. Jean Carroll, closing one chapter of a legal reckoning that began when she publicly accused Donald Trump of sexual abuse in 2019. Judge Lewis Kaplan rejected Trump's final procedural maneuver to freeze the funds, finding no legal merit in the argument that Carroll's intention to donate her winnings to charity constituted an 'unrecoverable loss' for the former president. The ruling affirms a principle as old as civil justice itself: that a plaintiff's right to collect what a jury has awarded her does not depend on what she chooses to do with it afterward.
- Trump's legal team made a last-ditch attempt to freeze the $5.8 million payout by asking the Supreme Court to rehear a denial it had already issued — a rare and rarely successful procedural gambit.
- The argument that Carroll's charitable intentions somehow harmed Trump more than a standard payout created an unusual legal tension, essentially asking a court to penalize a plaintiff for her generosity.
- Judge Kaplan moved swiftly to reject the freeze, signaling that procedural delay tactics had reached their limit in this particular chapter of the litigation.
- Carroll, now 82, will receive funds that include accrued interest on the original 2023 award — money that had been held in legal limbo for three years while appeals wound through the courts.
- The far larger $83.3 million defamation verdict from January 2024 remains entangled in ongoing appeals, meaning this resolution is partial — one battle won in a war still being fought.
A federal judge signed an order Wednesday releasing $5.8 million to E. Jean Carroll, ending a years-long standoff over funds that had been frozen since a jury found Donald Trump liable for sexually abusing and defaming her. Judge Lewis Kaplan rejected Trump's final attempt to block the payment — a procedural filing asking the Supreme Court to reconsider a case it had already declined to hear in June.
Carroll's lawyers noted the $5.8 million includes accrued interest on the original award. Trump's team had argued the payment would cause him 'unrecoverable loss,' pointing to Carroll's public pledge to donate every dollar she collects to charity. Kaplan was unmoved, implicitly affirming that a plaintiff's right to her judgment is not contingent on what she does with the money afterward.
Carroll, now 82, first came forward in 2019, saying Trump had raped her in a Manhattan department store dressing room in the mid-1990s. Trump denied it and falsely claimed he had never met her — denials that fueled the defamation claims alongside the abuse allegations. Two separate civil trials followed: the 2023 trial produced a $5 million verdict for sexual abuse and defamation; a January 2024 trial focused on defamation alone returned a staggering $83.3 million.
With Kaplan's order, Carroll collects on the first verdict. The second, larger award remains in legal proceedings, and Trump's team has signaled it will keep appealing. But the immediate question — whether the first payment could be blocked — has been answered.
On Wednesday, a federal judge signed an order releasing $5.8 million to E. Jean Carroll, money that had been sitting in legal limbo since a jury found Donald Trump liable for sexually abusing and defaming her three years earlier. Judge Lewis Kaplan's decision came after Trump's legal team made one final push to block the payment, arguing that the funds should remain frozen while they pursued a long-shot petition asking the Supreme Court to reconsider a case it had already rejected.
The Supreme Court had declined Trump's appeal on June 29, declining to hear the case at all. But his attorneys came back with a new filing requesting that the Court rehear its own denial—a procedural maneuver that Kaplan found unpersuasive. The judge ordered the money released, bringing to a close one chapter of a legal saga that has stretched across multiple trials and years of courtroom battles.
Carroll's lawyers say the $5.8 million figure includes accrued interest on the original award. Trump's team had argued in their last-minute plea that allowing the payment would cause him "unrecoverable loss," a claim that hinged on an unusual fact: Carroll has publicly stated she intends to donate every dollar she collects to charity and causes she supports. Trump's lawyers suggested this meant the money would leave his hands permanently without benefiting the woman who won it—a legal argument that the judge rejected.
The 82-year-old writer first made her accusation public in 2019, saying Trump had raped her in a Manhattan department store dressing room sometime in the mid-1990s. Trump denied it then and has continued to deny it since, falsely claiming he had never even met her. The accusation set off a chain of litigation that produced two separate civil trials, each with its own verdict against him.
The first trial, concluded in 2023, resulted in a jury finding Trump liable for sexual abuse and defamation. That verdict came with a $5 million award. A second trial followed in January 2024, this time focused solely on defamation claims. That jury returned a far larger verdict: $83.3 million. Together, the two awards represent a substantial financial reckoning, though Trump has continued to fight the judgments through appeals and procedural challenges.
With Kaplan's order, Carroll will now receive the funds from the first verdict. The second, larger award remains subject to ongoing legal proceedings. Trump's team has signaled it will continue pursuing appeals, but the immediate question of whether the first payment would be blocked has been resolved. Carroll's stated intention to give the money away rather than keep it for herself appears to have been irrelevant to the judge's reasoning—the law, Kaplan's order suggests, does not condition a plaintiff's right to collect a judgment on what she chooses to do with it afterward.
Citas Notables
Trump's legal team argued the funds couldn't be paid unless the Supreme Court rejected his petition for reconsideration of his appeal.— Trump's attorneys
Carroll has stated she intends to donate all funds she collects to charity.— E. Jean Carroll
La Conversación del Hearth Otra perspectiva de la historia
Why did Trump's team argue that releasing the money would cause him unrecoverable loss if Carroll is just going to give it away anyway?
It's a strange argument, but it reveals something about how they were thinking. They seemed to be saying: if the money leaves Trump's control and then leaves Carroll's hands entirely through donation, there's no way to recover it later if Trump wins on appeal. It's a procedural desperation move.
But Carroll won the case. She earned the verdict. Why should it matter to a judge what she does with her own money?
Exactly. That's what Judge Kaplan essentially said by rejecting the plea. The law doesn't condition your right to collect a judgment on how you promise to spend it. Once a jury decides you're owed money, you're owed it.
How many times has Trump been found liable in these cases?
Twice. Two separate juries, two separate verdicts. The first found him liable for both sexual abuse and defamation—that's the $5 million one. The second trial was about defamation alone and came back at $83.3 million.
So there's still that larger verdict hanging over him?
Yes. That one is still in the appeals process. This order only releases the first payment. The fight continues on the bigger number.
What's the timeline here? When did Carroll first make this accusation?
She went public with it in 2019. But she was alleging something that happened in the mid-1990s—decades earlier. Trump denied it from the start and has never stopped denying it.