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NEW YORK — Legal representatives for writer E. Jean Carroll have formally petitioned a federal judge to enforce the payment of a $5 million damages award, following the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to decline a review of the civil case. With accrued interest, the total outstanding judgment now amounts to approximately $5.8 million.
The motion was filed on Tuesday, one day after the nation’s highest court rejected an appeal by President Donald Trump to review the lower court decisions. In May 2023, a New York federal jury found Trump liable for civil sexual abuse and defamation stemming from claims dating back to the 1990s, an allegation that Trump has consistently denied.
In their legal brief, Carroll’s attorneys indicated that while they had previously accommodated various administrative delays during the appeals process, they are now asking the court to finalize the execution of the judgment.
“After four years of litigation across every level of the federal court system, it is time for this case to end,” Carroll’s legal team stated in the filing.
Procedural History and Appeal Outcomes
The long-running civil dispute centers around allegations regarding an incident in a Manhattan department store dressing room during the mid-1990s, alongside subsequent challenges regarding public statements made on social media platforms in 2022.
The defense has repeatedly argued that the trial proceedings involved evidentiary errors that impacted the jury’s final determination. However, a federal appeals court reviewed the case last year, concluding that the presiding district judge, Lewis Kaplan, conducted the trial within legal boundaries and that the verdict remained valid.
Following Monday’s Supreme Court decision, Trump utilized his Truth Social platform to express strong disagreement with the judicial outcome, characterizing the litigation as an instance of politically motivated lawfare and vowing to continue contesting the defamation claims through available legal avenues.
Separate Financial Obligations and Ongoing Appeals
The $5.8 million judgment represents only a portion of the ongoing litigation between the two parties. In a separate civil trial in 2024, another federal jury awarded Carroll approximately $83.3 million in damages regarding different public statements made by the president.
An appellate judicial panel denied the initial defense appeal against that larger judgment late last year. Legal analysts note that with the Supreme Court declining to intervene in the primary $5 million case, the focus now shifts back to district courts for the enforcement of financial liabilities and the management of remaining appellate motions.
