E. Jean Carroll Receives Damages from Lawsuit Against Donald Trump

E. Jean Carroll has collected over $5.6 million following a jury’s decision in her sexual abuse and defamation lawsuit against former President Donald Trump. Court records and her legal team confirmed this receipt. The payment, which includes the $5 million jury award plus interest, was made from an account held in escrow since the 2023 verdict.

On Tuesday, Carroll’s lawyer, Roberta Kaplan, stated, “We are pleased to report that she has received the damages payment.” Trump’s legal team plans to continue their appeal efforts.

Shortly after the jury’s ruling against him, Trump deposited the damages into an escrow account. The U.S. Supreme Court recently allowed the civil verdict to stand, which permitted Judge Lewis A. Kaplan to authorize the release of the funds. Trump’s attorneys unsuccessfully sought an emergency order to block the payment. The court’s denial included no restrictions on how Carroll could manage the money, which her lawyers noted would be allocated to her retirement account.

Trump’s legal representatives have filed an additional appeal aiming to halt or reverse the payment. The jury determined that Trump assaulted Carroll in 1996 within a department store dressing room in New York and later defamed her when she shared the account in a 2019 memoir. This took place during Trump’s first presidential term.

Trump, now facing continued appeals, denied any sexual incident with Carroll, now 82, who was serving as an advice columnist. Claiming she fabricated the story, Trump stated Carroll was “totally lying” and “not my type” during a 2019 interview. He dismissed a photo of them together from 1987 as insignificant and accused her of having ulterior motives and profiting off his name.

Trump did not appear at the trial where Carroll recounted their allegedly flirtatious encounter, which she claims turned violent. The lawsuit was initiated after a change in New York’s laws, allowing sexual abuse survivors to bring forward cases from the past.

Separately, Trump is contesting an $83 million defamation award granted to Carroll by another jury in 2024, where he briefly testified.