The US Supreme Court recently let the civil verdict stand, allowing Judge Lewis A. Kaplan to release the funds. Trump’s lawyers then attempted to obtain an emergency order to block the payment, but their request was denied. The denial did not impose any conditions on how Carroll could use the money. In court papers, her lawyers stated that she intends to deposit it into a retirement account. Since then, Trump’s attorneys have filed another appeal, seeking to halt or reverse the payment.

The jury found that Trump attacked Carroll in a New York luxury department store dressing room in 1996 and defamed her after she publicly recounted the incident in a memoir published in 2019 during his first term as president. Trump consistently denied any sexual involvement with Carroll, now 82, a former advice columnist. In a 2019 interview, he dismissed her claims as “totally lying” and “not my type”.

Trump also claimed he barely knew Carroll, dismissing a 1987 photo of them and their then-spouses at a party as inconsequential. He further accused her of harbouring political motives and attempting to profit from her books at his expense.

Notably, Trump did not attend the trial, where Carroll testified that their flirtatious and friendly encounter at the department store escalated into violence. Carroll sued Trump after New York changed its laws to give sexual abuse survivors a fresh chance to sue over attacks that happened in the distant past.

Trump is also appealing $83 million defamation award granted to Carroll by a separate Manhattan jury after a 2024 trial in which he briefly testified. The Associated Press identifies Carroll because she has agreed to be named.