# E. Jean Carroll Finally Collects $5.6 Million From Trump After Years-Long Legal Fight
Writer E. Jean Carroll has officially received payment on the $5 million jury verdict against President Donald Trump, closing out a chapter of litigation that dragged through federal courts for more than three years following a landmark finding that Trump sexually abused and defamed her.
Court records show the funds — which had been sitting in a federal escrow account since 2023 — were disbursed to Carroll’s legal team, with the final total reaching $5,625,005.48 once accumulated interest was factored in.
## A Verdict Years in the Making
The payout stems from a civil trial that captivated the nation in the spring of 2023, when a Manhattan jury unanimously determined that Trump had sexually assaulted Carroll decades earlier and then defamed her when he publicly disputed her account. ,A New York jury in 2023 held Trump liable for sexually abusing Carroll in the dressing room of Bergdorf Goodman in the mid-1990s and defaming her in 2022 when he denied her claim, and decided she is entitled to $5 million in damages.,
Carroll’s legal saga with Trump began well before that verdict, however. ,Carroll first went public with her abuse allegations in 2019. She sued Trump for defamation that same year, but the case was tied up in appeals for years over issues involving presidential immunity.,
Trump has consistently denied any wrongdoing. ,He maintains he does not know Carroll and didn’t commit any wrongdoing,, and has repeatedly characterized the allegations against him as politically motivated.
## The Long Road Through Appeals
Rather than paying the judgment outright after the 2023 verdict, Trump’s legal team pursued nearly every available avenue of appeal, keeping the disputed funds parked in a court-administered escrow account rather than in Carroll’s hands. According to reporting on the case, ,three years ago, Trump deposited $5.55 million in the federal government’s Court Registry Investment System, which effectively held the money in escrow, while the litigation played out.
The case wound its way through multiple levels of federal review. ,The judgment on the verdict was upheld on appeal, an en banc rehearing was denied, and the Supreme Court denied certiorari without dissent., Notably, ,the Supreme Court, which includes three justices appointed by Trump, did not note any dissents to that denial, and did not explain its reasons for rejecting Trump’s request.,
Even after the nation’s highest court declined to intervene, Trump’s attorneys made one more attempt to keep the money out of Carroll’s reach. ,Trump’s attorneys sought to delay the payment for what would have been at least several more months, asking the judge to give them more time before releasing the money while they ask the high court to reconsider its decision.,
## Judge Runs Out of Patience
U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan, who has overseen the Carroll litigation for years, did not mince words when he finally ordered the funds released. ,”In the last analysis, defendant has been stalling this case for years. A jury unanimously concluded that he sexually abused and defamed plaintiff and awarded her damages accordingly. The judgment on that verdict has been upheld on appeal. En banc rehearing has been denied. The Supreme Court has denied certiorari without dissent,” Kaplan wrote in his order.,
The judge added a pointed closing line to his ruling, declaring ,”It’s time for him to ‘do equity’ and pay the judgment.”,
Trump’s legal team had argued that Carroll, despite her advanced age, would not be harmed by further delay since interest would continue accruing on the award. ,They argued that Carroll, who is 82, “faces only temporary delay” for which she’d collect additional interest “unless judgment is overturned on appeal.”, But Carroll’s attorneys countered that any further wait was unjustified, with attorney Roberta Kaplan telling the court that ,”This is the end of the line.”,
When Trump’s lawyers made a last-ditch bid to the Second Circuit Court of Appeals for an emergency stay, the request was flatly rejected. ,The appeals court rejected his request for a delay in a one-page order, clearing the way for the money to go to Carroll.,
## A Second, Larger Judgment Still Looms
While this $5.6 million payment resolves one portion of Carroll’s legal battle with the president, a far larger judgment remains unsettled. ,A jury in a separate but related case determined Trump owes Carroll an additional $83 million in damages, but that is still going through the appeals process., That second case centers on defamatory statements Trump made while still in the White House during his first term, and his attorneys have signaled they intend to fight it all the way to the Supreme Court, arguing presidential immunity should shield him from liability.
Trump’s legal team has suggested that outcome could have ripple effects on the case just resolved, since ,Carroll’s attorneys introduced evidence of those same statements at the other trial, in addition to statements he made in 2022, when he was not the president.,
## What Comes Next
For now, Carroll has finally collected on the verdict that first vindicated her claims in a court of law. NBC News has reached out to attorneys representing both Carroll and Trump for further comment, and this story continues to develop as the larger $83 million judgment moves through the appellate process.
The resolution of this portion of the case marks a symbolic milestone in a legal battle that has spanned two presidential terms, multiple appellate courts, and a Supreme Court that ultimately declined — without dissent — to disturb a jury’s findings against the sitting president of the United States.