The order turns a long-running civil verdict into an actual payout. It also leaves Trump still fighting a much larger separate award to Carroll.
A federal judge has ordered the release of nearly $5.8 million owed by Donald Trump to writer E. Jean Carroll, moving one of the most closely watched Trump civil cases from courtroom fight to payout.
The order follows the Supreme Court’s refusal to take up Trump’s appeal of a 2023 civil verdict in which a jury found him liable for sexually abusing Carroll in the 1990s and defaming her after she publicly accused him. Trump has denied Carroll’s allegations.
The money was already set aside
The payment at issue is not a fresh jury award. It is money Trump had deposited with the court while he appealed the verdict, a common step that allows a defendant to delay collection while a case is still being reviewed.
The original jury award was $5 million in compensatory and punitive damages. Because the funds were held during the appeal process, they earned interest, bringing the amount Carroll is owed to nearly $5.8 million, according to reporting on court filings.
That distinction matters. Carroll was not asking the court to chase down assets or calculate a new penalty. Her lawyers argued that the legal condition for releasing the funds had been met once the Supreme Court declined to hear Trump’s case.
Carroll’s lawyers said delay was over
Carroll’s attorney Roberta Kaplan told the court that Trump had already been given repeated chances to postpone payment while he pursued appeals. In a filing quoted by CNBC, Kaplan wrote, “This is the end of the line.”
Her filing argued that Carroll had agreed to earlier delays, but that the Supreme Court’s decision not to take the case removed any practical reason to keep the money frozen.
Kaplan also pointed to the low odds of the Supreme Court granting a rehearing after denying review. Such requests are possible, but they are rarely granted and typically require extraordinary circumstances.
In Carroll’s view, allowing another pause based on that possibility would unfairly extend a case that had already survived review by multiple courts.
Trump’s team wanted more time
Trump’s lawyers had sought to delay release of the money so they could potentially ask the Supreme Court to reconsider its refusal to hear the appeal. That request came after the high court declined certiorari, the legal term for agreeing to review a lower court ruling.
A spokesperson for Trump’s legal team, responding to CNBC, attacked the case as part of what Trump has repeatedly called politically motivated legal action. The spokesperson said Trump would “keep winning” against what the team described as “Liberal Lawfare.”
Trump has continued to deny Carroll’s claims. After the Supreme Court declined to hear the appeal, he posted on Truth Social calling the case “Fake” and saying he had never met Carroll, according to the court filing described by CNBC.
The judge’s order does not mean Trump accepts the verdict or Carroll’s account. It means the court has decided the money tied to that verdict should now be released.
The verdict survived several stops
The underlying case centered on Carroll’s allegation that Trump sexually assaulted her in a dressing room at a Manhattan department store in the mid-1990s. A civil jury in 2023 found Trump liable for sexual abuse and defamation, but did not find him liable for rape under the specific New York legal standard used in that trial.
Trump challenged the verdict before U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan and then before the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. Those efforts did not undo the judgment.
The Supreme Court’s refusal to hear the case was a major procedural endpoint. The justices do not have to explain why they decline cases, and the denial left the lower-court outcome in place.
There were no noted dissents from the Supreme Court’s denial, according to CNBC’s report. Three members of the court were nominated by Trump during his first term.
A bigger Carroll award remains separate
This $5.8 million release does not resolve all litigation between Trump and Carroll. A separate Manhattan federal jury awarded Carroll $83.3 million in another defamation case tied to statements Trump made after leaving office.
Trump is still appealing that larger award. That means the newest order is significant, but it is not the final financial chapter in the Carroll litigation.
The two awards stem from different statements and different phases of the dispute. The $5 million verdict involved the jury’s findings on sexual abuse and defamation tied to Trump’s earlier denials. The $83.3 million award concerned separate defamatory statements, according to the court record described in public reporting.
Trump’s financial disclosure has listed both Carroll-related judgments as liabilities, including the $5 million verdict and the larger $83.3 million award.
Why this order matters now
For Carroll, the ruling changes the status of the first verdict from a judgment on paper to money she is positioned to receive. That is often the point at which civil litigation becomes most tangible: not when a jury announces a number, but when the funds actually move.
For Trump, the order narrows his room to keep delaying payment on this particular verdict. He can continue to criticize the case publicly and pursue legal options where they remain available, but the court has now allowed Carroll to collect the funds already deposited.
The decision also underscores a broader legal reality facing high-profile defendants: appeals can slow collection, but they do not erase a judgment unless a higher court intervenes.
The immediate takeaway is simple. Carroll has won the fight over the release of the nearly $5.8 million tied to the 2023 verdict, while Trump’s broader legal battle with her continues on the much larger defamation award.
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