Following the U.S. Supreme Court's rejection of President Donald Trump's appeal, writer E. Jean Carroll demanded that the compensation she was awarded in the lawsuit she filed in 2019 be paid as soon as possible.
On Tuesday, Carroll's attorney Roberta Kaplan filed a motion stating that there should be no further delay in the payment of damages. On Wednesday, Judge Lewis Kaplan granted Carroll's request and gave Trump's legal team until July 7 to respond.
Carroll, a former Elle magazine columnist, claimed in a section of her memoir published in 2019 that Trump raped her in the Bergdorf Goodman department store in Manhattan in 1996. Trump denied the allegation, calling Carroll a liar and saying, 'She's not my type.'
That same year, Carroll filed her first defamation lawsuit against Trump. In 2022, she brought a second lawsuit under New York's Adult Survivors Act, alleging both defamation and assault. In that case, Trump's posts on Truth Social calling her a 'complete con artist' and 'fake' were presented as evidence.
In the first trial, completed in May 2023, the jury found Trump liable for sexual assault and defamation and awarded Carroll $5 million in damages. However, the jury did not find liability on the rape charge. With interest over time, that amount grew to about $5.8 million.
The second trial concluded in January 2024, and the jury awarded Carroll $83.3 million in damages. Trump appealed both verdicts, arguing that the proceedings were improper. On Monday, the Supreme Court rejected his appeal of the $5 million verdict, leaving the lower court rulings in place.
Following the decision, Trump posted on Truth Social, calling the case a 'sham case' and saying, 'I will fight this weaponized legal war with all my might.'
Carroll's attorney Kaplan stated in the court filing that her client had consented to all extension requests to date, but that cooperation had now ended, adding, 'It is now time for him to pay Carroll.'
