Judge Orders Trump to Immediately Pay E. Jean Carroll $5.8 Million

Summary

A federal judge ruled Wednesday that E. Jean Carroll must immediately receive the $5.8 million a jury awarded her after finding President Donald Trump liable for sexually abusing her in a Manhattan department store in 1996 and then spending years defaming her when she went public. The money had been tied up, and the judge's order cuts through that delay, directing its release now. The underlying verdict, reached in 2023, was one of the most consequential civil findings against a sitting American president in modern history. Carroll, a former Elle magazine advice columnist, first described the encounter in a 2019 memoir, and Trump's repeated public denials that it ever happened formed the basis of her defamation claims. The jury awarded her $5 million on the sexual abuse and defamation counts; a second trial in early 2024 added another $83 million in defamation damages, a separate judgment. Wednesday's order concerns only the original $5.8 million tranche. Trump has denied all of Carroll's allegations and has indicated plans to appeal.