Judge Rules E. Jean Carroll be Paid $5.8 Million in Trump Sex Abuse Case

Eduardo Munoz Alvarez/AP Photo

Writer E. Jean Carroll is to be paid $5.8 million in her long-running legal battle with President Donald Trump, a judge ruled Wednesday.

The money was set aside three years ago, after a jury found Trump had sexually abused Carroll in 1996 in the dressing room of Bergdorf Goodman in Manhattan, and later defamed her when she revealed the attack in a 2019 article.

US Southern District of New York Judge Lewis A. Kaplan noted Carroll should also be paid the interest earned on the money since the unanimous May 2023 verdict.

But the fight between Carroll and Trump didn’t stop there.

The two have sparred ever since, with Trump continuing to fight the allegations.

In January 2024, Carroll won against Trump in court a second time, when she won a stunning $83.3 million in a defamation case against the president, who continued to attack Carroll in the aftermath of the verdict.

The massive damages included compensatory damages of $7.3 million for emotional harm and $11 million in “reputational repair,” plus $65 million in punitive damages.

Despite the enormous defamation verdict, Trump lashed out at Carroll on Truth Social, declaring: “I don’t even know who this woman is. I have no idea who she is, where she came from. This is another scam. It’s a political witch hunt.”

He also called it “disgraceful” and insisted, “She totally lied about it.”

Trump’s effort to overturn the verdict was squashed in June when the Supreme Court declined to hear the president’s appeal in the case.

That Supreme Court decision prompted Carroll’s lawyers to request a ruling from Kaplan on whether she could be paid the $5 million.

In May, the US Department of Justice began a criminal investigation of Carroll, sparking a political firestorm.

The probe is said to center on the accusation that Carroll committed perjury when she claimed in a 2022 deposition that her lawsuit against the president was not funded by any outside backers. Billionaire Reid Hoffman, Carroll’s lawyers later told the judge, paid some of her legal fees.

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