A federal judge has denied Donald Trump’s attempt to delay a $5.8m payout to E Jean Carroll, days after the US supreme court declined to hear an appeal in the sexual abuse and defamation case. District Judge Lewis Kaplan issued a text-only order on 4 July with no further explanation, shutting down the president’s latest legal manoeuvre.
Trump’s lawyers had filed a request on 3 July asking for more time to pay the civil judgment, arguing that new lead counsel Josh Halpern needed “to become completely familiar with the facts and procedural circumstances” of the case. The request came after former lead attorney Justin Smith left the case last month to take up a federal judgeship – a post he was nominated to by Trump.
“Judge denies Trump's bid to delay $5.8m payout to E Jean Carroll after Supreme Court rejected appeal.”
The sum, originally $5m when a jury awarded damages in 2023, now stands at nearly $5.8m with accrued interest. The jury found that Trump sexually abused Carroll in 1996 and then defamed her after she went public in 2019. Trump has consistently denied the allegations, calling the case a “Weaponization and Lawfare Case”.
Carroll’s lawyer, Roberta Kaplan, opposed the delay, calling it “little more than yet another play for time”. She noted that Smith was nominated more than five months ago and that Trump “has had ample time to retain new counsel”. In a filing before the judge’s decision, she accused Trump of trying “to buy time so he can try to concoct some new basis to put off paying”.
Trump had deposited money in an escrow fund to cover the award, but his team argued that no harm would come to Carroll from a delay. They asked to extend the deadline for a response to Carroll’s payment request to 14 July.
Earlier, the supreme court declined to hear Trump’s appeal, after which the president vowed to keep fighting. On Truth Social, he wrote: “Surprisingly, the Supreme Court declined to ‘review’ a Fake Case brought against me by a woman I never met.” Trump also faces a separate $83m defamation judgment in favour of Carroll, which he has indicated he will appeal.