Donald Trump has paid E. Jean Carroll $5.625 million, fulfilling a jury award from a civil trial where he was found liable for sexual assault and defamation. The payment was revealed Tuesday in court records, following the Supreme Court's decision not to hear Trump's appeals on the matter.
This initial payment stems from a jury verdict in May 2023. The funds were held in a trust account during Trump's previous unsuccessful attempts to appeal the ruling. The money has now been transferred to Carroll's lawyer, Roberta Kaplan.
Kaplan stated that the payment represents damages awarded by a unanimous nine-person jury three years ago. Carroll, 82, testified that in 1996, Trump, 80, sexually assaulted her in a Bergdorf Goodman dressing room. Trump has consistently denied the encounter.
Jurors in the Manhattan federal court civil trial determined that a preponderance of evidence indicated Trump sexually assaulted Carroll. He was found liable for sexual abuse, though a separate rape charge was dismissed. New York law was updated in September 2024 to include such acts as rape. The jury also found Trump liable for defamation after he publicly claimed Carroll fabricated her story to promote her book and stated she was not his type.
The $5.625 million payment now precedes a significantly larger judgment of $83.3 million awarded to Carroll in a subsequent trial. This second trial addressed damages after Trump continued to make public statements disparaging Carroll. At that trial, jurors awarded Carroll $65 million for defamation stemming from malice, ill will, or spite, $11 million to aid in reputation repair, and $7.3 million for pain and suffering.
Trump had posted a $91.6 million bond, guaranteed by a subsidiary of Chubb, to cover the larger verdict, which includes interest, pending the outcome of his appeals. The 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the $83.3 million verdict in September 2025, and Trump is currently seeking the Supreme Court's intervention to overturn this judgment. His legal team has also requested the Supreme Court reconsider its earlier refusal to hear the appeal of the smaller verdict.
A spokesperson for Trump's legal team issued a statement Tuesday, calling the cases "Witch Hunts" and "Liberal Lawfare," and asserting that Trump "will keep winning" and "continue to focus on his mission to Make America Great Again."