Carroll Seeks Release of $5.8 Million Award from Trump

E. Jean Carroll asked a New York federal court judge to order the immediate release of nearly $5.8 million she is owed from a 2023 civil verdict that found President Donald Trump liable for sexually abusing and defaming her. The request came after the Supreme Court on Monday declined to hear Trump's appeal of that verdict. Carroll's lawyers filed the motion Tuesday night.

Carroll's attorney Roberta Kaplan wrote that Trump should pay now. "It is time for him to pay Carroll," Kaplan stated in the filing to District Court Judge Lewis Kaplan. Trump's legal team wants to delay disbursement so the president can ask the Supreme Court to reconsider its refusal to review the case.

Such rehearing requests are rarely granted. Kaplan noted that Carroll had previously agreed to multiple delays requested by Trump. She argued that further postponement would be unfair after the Supreme Court's decision.

A jury found Trump sexually abused Carroll in a Manhattan department store dressing room in the mid-1990s and later defamed her. The panel awarded her $5 million in compensatory and punitive damages. Trump deposited funds with the court to secure the verdict during appeals.

Those funds have since earned nearly $800,000 in interest that Carroll is also entitled to receive. The $5 million verdict appears as a liability in Trump's 2025 financial disclosure report released Tuesday. A separate $83.3 million defamation verdict from another Carroll case remains under appeal.

After the Supreme Court declined review, Trump posted on Truth Social that the case was "Fake" and that he had never met Carroll. Within minutes, his lawyers contacted Carroll's attorneys to request further delay for a rehearing petition. Judge Kaplan ordered Trump's lawyers to respond to the new motion by next Tuesday.