More than three years after filing suit, Carroll has officially received the first damages awarded in her legal battles with Donald Trump.
The years-long legal battle between writer E. Jean Carroll and President Donald Trump reached another major milestone Tuesday after Carroll officially received more than $5.6 million from the 2023 civil judgment that found Trump liable for sexually abusing and defaming her.
The payment follows the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision on June 29, 2026, to decline Trump’s appeal of the 2023 verdict, leaving the judgment intact and clearing the way for the money that had been held in a court-controlled escrow account during the appeals process to be released.
While Trump continues to challenge a separate $83.3 million defamation judgment entered against him in 2024, the payment marks the first completed financial recovery Carroll has received from the civil lawsuits.
How the Legal Battle Began
The dispute began after Carroll alleged in her 2019 memoir, What Do We Need Men For? A Modest Proposal, which stated that Donald Trump sexually assaulted her inside a dressing room at the luxury department store Bergdorf Goodman in Manhattan in 1996.
Published by St. Martin’s Press in 2019, the book included Carroll’s account of the alleged encounter with Trump, which later became the basis for her defamation lawsuits against him.
Trump denied the allegation, saying he did not know Carroll and accusing her of fabricating the story for political and financial gain.
Carroll subsequently filed two separate federal civil lawsuits in New York.
The first lawsuit, filed in 2019, alleged that Trump’s public denials and statements accusing her of lying constituted defamation.
The second lawsuit was filed in 2022 after New York enacted the Adult Survivors Act, which temporarily allowed survivors of sexual assault to pursue civil claims that otherwise would have been barred by the statute of limitations. That lawsuit also challenged additional allegedly defamatory statements Trump made in 2022.
Two Landmark Jury Verdicts
May 2023: $5 Million Award
In May 2023, a federal jury in Manhattan found Trump liable for sexually abusing Carroll and for defaming her after she went public with her allegations.
Jurors awarded Carroll $2 million in damages for sexual abuse and $3 million for defamation.
Although the jury did not find Trump liable for rape under New York law, it found him liable for sexually abusing Carroll and defaming her. Under New York law, the key distinction between rape and sexual abuse is the type of conduct involved: rape generally involves nonconsensual sexual intercourse with penetration, while sexual abuse involves nonconsensual sexual contact, such as unwanted touching of intimate parts.
Trump did not attend the trial and has consistently denied all allegations.
“I’ve never met this person in my life. I have no idea who she is. She’s trying to sell a new book — that’s an indication of what her motivation is,” said Donald Trump on June 21, 2019, in an official White House press statement and via X.
January 2024: $83.3 Million Defamation Verdict
In January 2024, a second federal jury considered damages stemming from Trump’s original 2019 statements while he was president.
That jury ordered Trump to pay $83.3 million, including compensatory and punitive damages, after concluding his repeated attacks caused significant harm to Carroll’s reputation.
Trump has appealed that judgment, and the case remains pending.
Appeals Reach the Supreme Court
Following the 2023 verdict, Trump deposited the judgment into a court-controlled escrow account while pursuing his appeals.
His attorneys argued that U.S. District Judge Lewis A. Kaplan improperly allowed testimony from other women who accused Trump of sexual misconduct, contending that the evidence unfairly prejudiced the jury.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit rejected those arguments and upheld the verdict.
Trump then asked the U.S. Supreme Court to review the case, arguing that the evidentiary rulings were improper and that the litigation posed an unfair distraction from his presidential responsibilities.
On June 29, 2026, the Supreme Court declined to hear the appeal without comment, allowing the lower court’s decision to stand.
The justices’ action did not affect Trump’s separate appeal of the $83.3 million defamation verdict, which remains active in the federal courts.
Carroll Collects the Judgment
Following the Supreme Court’s decision, Carroll’s legal team asked the district court to immediately release the escrowed funds.
On July 8, 2026, U.S. District Judge Lewis A. Kaplan ordered the court clerk to distribute the money despite emergency requests from Trump’s attorneys seeking to delay the payment.
Carroll ultimately received $5,625,000, representing the original $5 million jury award plus approximately three years of post-judgment interest.
Carroll acknowledged receiving the payment in a brief post to her Substack newsletter, writing:
“The eagle has landed.”
Court filings indicate Carroll intends to place the money into a retirement account.
Litigation Funding Also Drew Attention
Throughout the litigation, Kaplan Hecker & Fink represented Carroll.
During a 2022 deposition, Carroll testified that she was not receiving outside financial assistance to pay her attorneys. Her legal team later disclosed that the firm obtained litigation funding from American Future Republic, a nonprofit organization largely backed by LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman, to help cover legal expenses.
Hoffman has said his financial support began only after Carroll had already filed her lawsuit.
The funding arrangement has since attracted scrutiny from federal prosecutors in Chicago. However, courts overseeing Carroll’s lawsuits have consistently ruled that the nonprofit’s financial support did not undermine the validity of the jury verdicts or affect Carroll’s credibility. Public reporting has also indicated that authorities have not opened a criminal investigation into Carroll herself.
What’s Next?
Although Carroll has now collected the $5 million judgment and accrued interest, Trump’s legal fight with her is not over.
His appeal of the separate $83.3 million defamation judgment continues to move through the federal court system, meaning additional litigation is expected before that award becomes final.
For now, however, the Supreme Court’s decision not to review the 2023 verdict has ended one chapter of the high-profile legal battle.
“Three years ago, a unanimous nine-person jury found President Trump liable for sexually assaulting and defaming E. Jean Carroll. Today, we are pleased to report that she has received the damages payment the jury awarded her as a result of that verdict.”
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