E. Jean Carroll receives $5.6 million from Trump in sexual abuse and defamation case

E. Jean Carroll has been paid more than $5 million in damages, three years after a jury found President Trump liable for sexual abuse and defamation of the writer. Here, Carroll departs Manhattan federal appeals court following arguments in an appeal brought by Trump in New York City in September 2024.

Leonardo Munoz/AFP via Getty Images

Leonardo Munoz/AFP via Getty Images

Writer E. Jean Carroll has received some $5.625 million in her sexual abuse and defamation case against President Trump — a payment that was delayed for years as Trump filed appeals in the civil case.

A federal jury in Manhattan awarded Carroll $5 million in damages in 2023, after finding Trump liable for sexually abusing Carroll and defaming her. The final payment includes three years’ worth of interest.

“Three years ago, a unanimous nine-person jury found President Trump liable for sexually assaulting and defaming E. Jean Carroll,” Carroll’s attorney Roberta Kaplan said in a statement to NPR. “Today, we are pleased to report that she has received the damages payment the jury awarded her as a result of that verdict.”

The White House referred NPR’s requests for comment to Trump’s personal lawyers. Those attorneys did not immediately respond to messages seeking comment on the case.

In a 2019 memoir, Carroll accused Trump of sexually assaulting her in the dressing room of a Manhattan department store in 1996. After she leveled that charge, Trump denied the claim,said he’d never met Carroll, and described heras a liar motivated by ulterior goals. Carroll then filed a lawsuit against Trump accusing him of defamation.

Court records filed on Tuesday show that the money was paid to Carroll and her legal team, after U.S. District Judge Lewis A. Kaplan ordered the president to pay Carroll. His order last week came after the Supreme Court declined to hear Trump’s appeal of the outcome.

A larger potential payment is still looming in the dispute between Carroll and Trump: an $83 million award in a separate defamation lawsuit filed by Carroll. The president has appealed that outcome; so far, federal courts have upheld the award.

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