A US judge on Wednesday ordered President Donald Trump to pay writer $5 million after a civil jury found that he sexually assaulted and defamed her. Trump’s lawyers immediately asked a court to block the payment while they appeal.
The president has already deposited the money in an account. The U.S. Supreme Court recently let the 2023 civil verdict stand, clearing the way for Judge Lewis A. Kaplan to release the money. The initial $5 million award has grown with interest.
Trump ordered to pay $5 million
Trump’s attorneys said Wednesday they would continue to appeal, and accused his political opponents of using the legal system against him. They want 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to stop the payment.
Last week, the against the original May 2023 judgment ordering him to pay $2 million in damages for sexual assault and $3 million for defamatory statements.
Allegation against Trump
Carroll, a former journalist and columnist who is now 82, accused the president of assaulting her in a dressing room of a New York department store in 1996.
When the allegations were published in a 2019 book, the Republican billionaire called her a “nut job” and claimed she had fabricated her case.
A jury found Trump attacked Carroll and defamed her after she described it publicly in a 2019 memoir, during his first term as president. Trump called her allegations false and said “ she’s not my type ” in an interview.
Trump did not attend the trial and the jury found Carroll testimony that their flirtatious and friendly chance encounter at the department store turned violent to be credible. Trump insisted he never knew Carroll and accused her of trying to sell books at his expense and of having political motives.
By declining to hear the appeal, the Supreme Court made the judgment final.
On Wednesday, federal judge Lewis Kaplan ordered that the $5 million Trump had been required to deposit with the court be paid.
The ruling also requires payment of unspecified accrued interest.
In a separate defamation case in New York, Trump was ordered to pay $83.3 million to Carroll. That judgment was upheld on appeal, but its enforcement remains suspended.
In late May, US media reported that Carroll herself was under criminal investigation, described as the latest example of Trump’s willingness to use the justice system against his enemies.
The investigation, opened by prosecutors, seeks to determine if Carroll lied under oath during several depositions against Trump.
