Overview
- U.S. District Judge Lewis A. Kaplan ordered the roughly $5.8 million held in the court’s escrow account be paid to E. Jean Carroll after the Supreme Court declined to hear Trump’s appeal, a decision issued Wednesday that cleared the way for disbursement.
- President Trump’s lawyers filed last‑minute petitions for the Supreme Court to reconsider and asked Kaplan to delay payment, arguing Carroll might donate the money and that doing so would cause unrecoverable harm to Trump.
- An emergency request to stop the transfer was rejected by a 2nd Circuit judge, but Trump has appealed Kaplan’s disbursement order to the appeals court and signaled continued litigation over enforcement.
- The funds were deposited into the Court Registry Investment System by Trump during appeals to secure the 2023 $5 million verdict and the order directs the clerk to transfer principal plus accrued interest to Carroll’s attorneys.
- Separately, a January 2024 jury awarded Carroll $83.3 million in a different defamation case that remains on appeal and the Justice Department has opened a separate criminal inquiry into Carroll’s testimony, developments that could affect wider legal questions such as presidential immunity.