US judge orders Donald Trump to pay E. Jean Carroll $5 million for sexual assault, defamation | Today’s news
A US judge on Wednesday ordered President Donald Trump to pay author E. Jean Carroll $5 million after a civil jury found he sexually assaulted and defamed her. Trump’s lawyers immediately asked the court to block the payment while they appeal.
The president has already deposited the money into the account. The US Supreme Court recently upheld the 2023 civil verdict, clearing the way for Judge Lewis A. Kaplan to release the money. The initial price of $5 million grew with interest.
Trump ordered the payment of $5 million
Trump’s lawyers said Wednesday they would continue to appeal and accused his political opponents of using the legal system against him. They want the 2nd US Circuit Court of Appeals to stop the payment.
Last week, the US Supreme Court declined to hear Trump’s appeal of the original May 2023 ruling, which ordered him to pay $2 million in damages for sexual assault and $3 million for defamation.
Allegations against Trump
Carroll, a former journalist and columnist now 82, accused the president of assaulting her in a New York department store dressing room in 1996.
When the allegations were made public in a 2019 book, the Republican billionaire called her a “moron” and claimed she made up her case.
The jury found that Trump attacked and defamed Carroll after she publicly described it in a 2019 memoir during his first term as president. Trump called her allegations false and said in an interview that she was “not my type.”
Trump did not attend the trial, and the jury found Carroll’s testimony that their flirtatious and friendly chance encounter at the department store turned violent was credible. Trump insisted he never knew Carroll and accused her of trying to sell books at his expense and of being politically motivated.
By rejecting the hearing of the appeal, the Supreme Court made the judgment final.
Federal Judge Lewis Kaplan on Wednesday ordered that the $5 million that Trump was supposed to deposit be paid in court.
The decision also requires the payment of unspecified accrued interest.
In a separate defamation case in New York, Trump was ordered to pay $83.3 million to Carroll. That sentence was upheld on appeal, but its execution remains suspended.
In late May, US media reported that Carroll herself was being investigated as the latest example of Trump’s willingness to use the justice system against his enemies.
The investigation, launched by Justice Department prosecutors, seeks to determine whether Carroll lied under oath during several depositions against Trump.