Trump pays $5.6M to E. Jean Carroll in abuse/defamation case

Former President Donald Trump has paid columnist E. Jean Carroll $5.625 million, concluding a years-long legal battle over a jury verdict that found him liable for sexually abusing and defaming her. The payment, which includes interest, was transferred to Carroll's attorneys on July 9, according to court documents filed on Tuesday, July 14, 2026.

The funds represent the damages awarded by a unanimous jury in May 2023, which found Trump liable for sexually assaulting Carroll in a Manhattan department store in the mid-1990s and for defaming her by publicly denying her allegations. The money had been held in a court-controlled account while Trump pursued a series of unsuccessful appeals, culminating in the Supreme Court declining to hear his petition on June 29.

Last week, U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan ordered the disbursement to proceed, rejecting a last-minute effort by Trump's legal team to block the payment pending a long-shot request for the Supreme Court to rehear the case. In a memorandum, the judge noted that Trump had been stalling the case for years and stated it was time for him to pay the judgment. A federal appeals court subsequently denied a request for an...