Trump Must Pay E. Jean Carroll After Courts Shut Down His Last Appeals

The long legal fight over whether Trump must pay E. Jean Carroll has finally reached its conclusion, and the outcome is not in his favor. After three years of litigation, multiple court battles, and a stack of legal filings, the former president is now obligated to hand over the money a jury said he owes. Courts at every level turned away his attempts to delay, leaving him no remaining path to avoid the payment.

A Three-Year Battle Comes to an End

The dispute has wound its way through all three levels of the federal court system. On Wednesday evening, a judge on the New York-based 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals rejected Trump’s request to freeze an order issued earlier that same day by a district judge. That lower-court order directed him to release $5 million, plus interest, to Carroll.

With that denial, the last obstacle fell away. Carroll is now positioned to collect her first installment of what she is owed. The funds are already sitting in escrow, ready to be transferred.

How Much Trump Owes in Total

While this particular payment covers $5 million, the full amount at stake is far larger. Between two separate jury verdicts, Trump owes Carroll a combined total of $88.3 million, plus interest.

The signs pointing to this result had been visible for some time. Just last week, the Supreme Court declined to take up Trump’s bid to overturn the original 2023 verdict, effectively closing off his highest avenue of appeal.

The Last-Minute Maneuvers That Failed

Even with the odds stacked against him, Trump made a series of eleventh-hour moves to hold off the payment. His efforts unfolded in a rapid sequence:

• He first asked U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan to deny Carroll’s request for payment, arguing he wanted to petition the Supreme Court to reconsider, despite the fact that the high court had already refused to get involved.
• When Judge Kaplan sided with Carroll instead, Trump escalated the matter to the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals.
• He asked that appellate court to pause Kaplan’s order, and it too declined.

At each stage, the courts closed the door, one after another.

What the $5 Million Judgment Was For

The $5 million judgment stems from a trial in which a jury found Trump liable for both sexual abuse and defamation. Carroll accused Trump of raping her in a dressing room at the Bergdorf Goodman department store during the 1990s. After she made her allegations public during his first term as president, Trump dismissed her account as a “hoax,” which formed the basis of the defamation finding.

A Second, Much Larger Judgment

Beyond the initial verdict, a separate trial in early 2024 produced an even bigger award. In that case, a jury ordered Trump to pay Carroll $83.3 million over additional remarks he made about her claims, comments a judge had already determined were defamatory. Trump continues to appeal that second judgment, so that portion of the saga is not yet fully resolved.

The Money Was Already Set Aside

In a practical sense, Trump had already parted with the funds. During the appeals process, he was required to deposit the money into a court-controlled account. Now that his final challenges have failed, that money must be released to Carroll. A precise timeline for when she will receive the full payment has not yet been made public.

The Bottom Line

The requirement that Trump pay E. Jean Carroll marks the end of a drawn-out legal chapter that tested every level of the judiciary. With the Supreme Court refusing to intervene and both the district and appellate courts rejecting his delay tactics, Carroll is finally set to receive the compensation a jury awarded her years ago. While the larger $83.3 million judgment remains under appeal, this ruling confirms that Trump’s options for avoiding the initial $5 million payment have run out.