News summary produced by Claude AI
President Donald Trump has completed a payment of more than $5.6 million to writer E Jean Carroll, resolving a civil damages award from a jury verdict reached three years prior. The payment included the original $5 million in damages plus accrued interest accumulated during the appeals process. Carroll’s legal representatives announced the completion of the payment on Tuesday, stating that she had received the full amount the jury had awarded in her favor.
Carroll, an 82-year-old former magazine columnist, had sued Trump over allegations that he sexually assaulted her in a Manhattan department store during the mid-1990s and subsequently defamed her through a post on his Truth Social website in 2022. A New York jury unanimously sided with Carroll in 2023, finding Trump liable on both counts. Trump had contested the verdict and sought to delay payment while pursuing further appeals, but a federal judge overseeing the case ordered the payment to proceed after the Supreme Court declined to hear his appeal request.
The funds had been held in a court-controlled account since the initial verdict while the appeals process continued. Trump’s legal team disputed the court’s authority to compel payment, characterizing the case as politically motivated. They maintained that Judge Lewis Kaplan, who presided over the civil trial, had improperly admitted evidence and prejudiced the jury. However, a federal appeals court upheld the jury’s verdict and found no errors in the judge’s conduct warranting a new trial.
Carroll responded to the payment and the Supreme Court’s earlier refusal to hear Trump’s appeal with statements celebrating the outcome on social media. Trump faces additional liability in a separate defamation case involving Carroll, in which a jury awarded her nearly $84 million in 2024. He has appealed that decision as well, though a panel of federal judges previously denied his appeal.