A federal judge on Wednesday ordered that writer E. Jean Carroll receive the $5 million that Donald Trump was ordered to pay her after a civil jury found him liable for sexual abuse and defamation.
The order came after the US Supreme Court last week declined to hear Trump’s appeal against the May 2023 verdict.
That decision made the judgment final.
Carroll, a former journalist and columnist now aged 82, had accused Trump of sexually assaulting her in a fitting room at a New York department store in 1996.
After she made the allegation public in a 2019 book, the Republican billionaire dismissed her claims as fabricated and called her crazy.
On Wednesday, federal judge Lewis Kaplan ordered that the $5 million Trump had deposited with the court as security while the appeals process played out be paid to Carroll.
The ruling also provides for the payment of accrued interest, although no amount was specified.
The original award included $2 million in damages for sexual abuse and $3 million for defamatory remarks.
In a separate defamation case in New York, Trump was ordered to pay Carroll $83.3 million.
That award has been upheld on appeal, but payment remains on hold pending a decision by the Supreme Court on whether it will take up the case.
At the end of May, US media reported that Carroll herself was under criminal investigation, in what was presented as another example of the president using the justice system against his opponents.
CNN and The New York Times reported, citing sources familiar with the matter, that Justice Department prosecutors were examining whether Carroll lied under oath during several depositions in cases involving Trump.
