Supreme Court ruling or not, Trump still fighting $5 million payout to E. Jean Carroll

Molly Crane-Newman, New York Daily News on Jul 8, 2026

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NEW YORK — Donald Trump is trying to fight a demand for the release of more than $5 million he owes E. Jean Carroll, the woman he was found liable for sexually assaulting, claiming he still has a Hail Mary move in his pocket even though the nation’s highest court unanimously rejected his appeal.

In papers filed in Manhattan Federal Court under the wire before midnight Tuesday, Trump’s attorneys said he had asked the Supreme Court to reconsider its recent decision to decline his appeal and that the money owed to Carroll could not be distributed until the court answers him.

“The public interest is best served by keeping the funds secure in the Court’s registry for the time necessary for the Supreme Court to resolve the pending rehearing petition,” Trump lawyer Michael Madaio wrote.

The president’s legal arguments featured an unlikely citation in support of his position — Michael Cohen, his longtime fixer-turned-foe, who has apparently come full circle after vowing for years to dedicate his life to taking down Trump.

“That is all the more true in this case, where concerns about politically motivated weaponization of the legal system have been voiced not only by President Trump’s supporters, but also by frequent critics like Michael Cohen, who have characterized such efforts as part of a ‘larger war’ against President Trump.”

Trump was found civilly liable for sexually assaulting Carroll inside a Midtown department store in 1996 and defamed her as a mentally unstable liar decades later, according to the Manhattan jury that found him liable at a trial in May 2023.

The jury’s $5 million award to Carroll, a bestselling author and former TV host, has remained locked in a court-controlled account for more than three years, as Trump petitioned one judge after another to overturn the verdict. It now stands at around $6.3 million after accruing interest.

Trump’s lawyers had agreed that if and when he had exhausted his options, the money could be released. His efforts failed before Manhattan Federal Judge Lewis Kaplan, New York’s 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals, and ultimately the Supreme Court, which last week declined to hear the appeal challenging the trial court judge’s rulings.

None of the justices, three of whom were installed by Trump, dissented.

In their late-night filing opposing Carroll’s motion for immediate disbursement of the funds, the president’s attorneys noted Carroll had publicly stated she plans to give the money away and that Trump would have no means of recovering it if the Supreme Court had a change of heart.

“If the Supreme Court denies rehearing, which it should not do, (Carroll) can be paid then with any interest to which she is entitled,” Madaio wrote.

Carroll’s lawyer, Roberta Kaplan, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Trump has separately been ordered to pay Carroll $83.3 million for additional instances of defamation, which were central to the original lawsuit she filed against him in 2019 and decided separately to the sexual abuse case. He is similarly appealing that outcome, but it hasn’t reached the Supreme Court.

The two suits Carroll brought against Trump were the only cases among the four that went to trial between his presidencies that saw him meaningfully held to account.

His criminal conviction for paying out hush money before the 2016 election amounted to no punishment, with the sentencing falling just 10 days before his return to power.

Trump beat back a half-billion-dollar judgment on appeal in a civil case brought by the New York attorney general, in which he and his adult sons and top Trump Organization executives were found liable for lying about his net worth by billions of dollars to enrich themselves.

Trump also faced serious federal charges in Miami and Washington, D.C., alleging he stole and hoarded classified documents impacting national security at his Florida resort and plotted to undo President Joe Biden’s election victory in 2020. Those cases were ultimately dismissed ahead of Trump’s return to the White House.

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