US judge denies Trump’s latest bid to delay $5.8m E Jean Carroll payout
The US President was found to have sexually abused and defamed the journalist in a civil case
A US judge has denied Trump’s latest attempt to delay a $5.8m payout to journalist E Jean Carroll after he was found liable in a civil case accusing him of sexually abusing and defaming her.
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An initial order delivered by Judge Lewis Kaplan on Wednesday saw him order the release of the funds from a court account.
Following the ruling, Trump’s legal team swiftly filed an appeal, alongside a motion to block the release of the funds.
Trump's legal team had argued the money might be impossible to recoup if the payout goes through before his appeal is resolved in court.
It comes after the US President's legal team argued Carroll has publicly said she plans to donate the sum to a foundation set up to distribute the funds.
Once the money leaves the court registry and is received by third parties, Trump's attorneys insisted, it “likely will not be recoverable,” potentially rendering any future appellate relief ineffective.
Justices turned away Trump's appeal on Wednesday after a lower court upheld the 2023 jury verdict and rejected his arguments that the trial was unfair because the judge impermissibly let jurors hear evidence of his alleged past sexual misconduct.
Trump has been battling Carroll, a former advice columnist for Elle magazine, ever since she published an excerpt from her memoir in 2019 in which she alleged that Trump had raped her in around 1996 in a Bergdorf Goodman department store dressing room in Manhattan.
He denied Carroll's claims and alleged that she lied about the accusations both in 2019 while he was still serving his first term as president, and again in 2022 when he was out of office.
The President's Justice Department has launched a criminal investigation targeting Carroll, as it has against several other adversaries of the Republican president.
The investigation, disclosed in May, was focused on whether Carroll committed perjury in testimony tied to the two civil lawsuits that she won against Trump.
The case that led to the $5 million verdict concerned Trump's statements in 2022 when he called Carroll's claim a "hoax" and a "con job" in a post on social media.