E Jean Carroll receives $5.6 million payment from Donald Trump in sex abuse case: What we know
E Jean Carroll, the writer who sued US President Donald Trump over claims of sexual abuse and defamation, has received $5.6 million that a jury
E Jean Carroll, the writer who sued US President Donald Trump over claims of sexual abuse and defamation, has received $5.6 million that a jury awarded her following her lawsuit. The payment, which included a $5 million jury award and interest, was made on Monday (local time) from an account where it had been held in escrow since the 2023 verdict, AP reported, citing court records. The payment was confirmed on Tuesday by Carroll's lawyer, Roberta Kaplan. In a statement, her lawyer wrote, "We are pleased to report that she has received the damages payment." Later, Carroll wrote on her Substack that “the eagle has landed.” E Jean Carroll vs Donald Trump A jury determined that Trump sexually assaulted Carroll in a dressing room at a luxury department store in New York in 1996. He later defamed her after she publicly recounted the allegation in her 2019 memoir during his first presidential term.
The ruling led the court to award Carroll compensation. Trump has consistently denied any sexual encounter with Carroll, maintaining that she was "totally lying" and "not my type". He also said he did not know Carroll, who is now 82 and a former advice columnist, dismissed a 1987 photograph showing the two with their respective spouses at a social gathering as insignificant, and alleged that her claims were politically motivated and intended to boost book sales. According to reports, Trump didn't attend the trial, where the writer testified that their flirtatious chance encounter at the department store turned violent. She sued the incumbent US president after New York changed its laws to allow sexual abuse survivors a fresh chance to sue over attacks that occurred in the distant past. Shortly after the jury ruled against him, Trump deposited the money in an escrow account.
After the Supreme Court recently let the civil verdict stand, Judge Lewis A. Kaplan was cleared to release the compensation. Later, Trump's legal team sought an emergency order to prevent the funds from being released; however, the request was rejected. After the Supreme Court rejected his appeal, Trump vowed in a social media post to continue to fight the case. He wrote, "I will continue the fight against this Weaponization and Lawfare Case against me, including the ridiculous claim of Defamation, with all of my power and strength." The brief order imposing the denial did not impose any restrictions on how the survivor could spend the compensation. In court filings, Carroll's attorneys said she intends to deposit the money into a retirement account. Trump is separately challenging an $83 million defamation award that a different Manhattan jury granted to Carroll following a 2024 trial, during which he briefly took the witness stand.
The BriefWire