Writer E. Jean Carroll has officially been paid the $5.6 million she was owed by President Donald Trump after a jury found him liable of sexually abusing her in 1996 and then defaming her after she publicized the attack.
“Three years ago, a unanimous nine-person jury found President Trump liable for sexually assaulting and defaming E. Jean Carroll," her attorney Roberta Kaplan said in a statement to Scripps News. "Today, we are pleased to report that she has received the damages payment the jury awarded her as a result of that verdict.”
Trump's lawyers have vowed to continue appealing the jury's verdict in attempt to stop or reverse the payment. However, a federal judge ruled last week that the money must be paid to Carroll, along with interest that has accrued since the 2023 civil verdict.
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The jury reached its verdict in a trial that Trump did not attend. Carroll testified that he sexually abused her in a New York City luxury department store dressing room. Carroll, 82, first went public with the attack in a 2019 memoir, though Trump repeatedly said he was innocent and accused the writer of using political motives to try and sell books.
Trump is separately challenging an $83 million defamation award that a different Manhattan jury ordered him to pay Carroll following a January 2024 trial, during which he gave brief testimony.
In that proceeding, the judge instructed jurors to treat the earlier jury’s conclusions as established fact and focus solely on deciding whether Trump should pay damages to Carroll — and if so, how much — for remarks he made about her while serving as president.
