Carroll Moves to Collect $5.5 Million Judgment After Supreme Court Rejects Trump Appeal
E. Jean Carroll, the magazine columnist who won a landmark sexual abuse and defamation case against Donald Trump, is moving to collect the money she is owed. Her legal team filed a motion Wednesday asking a federal judge to release more than $5.5 million — the jury award plus interest — from a court-controlled account, just one day after the U.S. Supreme Court refused to take up Trump’s appeal.
In a new court filing, Carroll’s attorneys urged the judge to fast-track the briefing schedule on her motion, noting that both sides had previously agreed to proceed once the high court ruled. “Given that the Supreme Court yesterday denied Defendant’s petition for certiorari, and given the cost to Plaintiff of further delay in this nearly four-year-old litigation, we submit that there is good cause to adopt a modestly compressed briefing schedule as to payment of the judgment,” they wrote.
The Supreme Court’s decision on Monday effectively exhausted Trump’s direct legal avenues to overturn the 2023 jury finding that he sexually abused Carroll in a Bergdorf Goodman dressing room in the mid-1990s and later defamed her by calling her accusation a lie. However, Trump has signaled he will continue fighting. One long-shot option is to ask the nation’s highest court for a rehearing, a petition he has about 25 days to file.
Carroll’s lawyers said in a separate filing late Tuesday that Trump’s team had asked them to agree to delay collection so Trump could seek that rehearing. They rejected the request. “Accordingly, after four years of litigation across every level of the federal court system, it is time for this case to end. And under the Court’s Stipulation and Order, Carroll is now entitled to obtain payment of the money due under the judgment,” they wrote.
The $5.5 million figure stems from the jury’s initial award in 2023, which Trump was required to deposit into a court-supervised account pending appeal. That amount has since grown with accrued interest. Carroll is also seeking to enforce a separate $83.3 million defamation judgment from a later trial, in which a jury found Trump defamed her again by continuing to deny the assault and questioning her motives. Trump has vowed to appeal that larger award to the Supreme Court, and his petition is expected in the coming days.
Legal experts say the Supreme Court’s refusal to hear the first case — in which Trump argued the trial judge improperly admitted evidence — signals that the justices saw no serious constitutional question. The development adds to Trump’s mounting legal pressures as he campaigns for the presidency, including ongoing criminal cases and civil judgments that together amount to hundreds of millions of dollars.
This story has been updated with additional details.