US judge orders release of $5.8m Trump owes E Jean Carroll after court loss

Summary

Manhattan judge’s order frees funds from Trump’s 2023 sexual abuse and defamation verdict after supreme court appeal failed Sign up for the Breaking News US newsletter email A Manhattan federal court judge has ordered the release of the more than $5m Donald Trump owes E Jean Carroll following her successful 2023 sexual abuse and defamation trial against him.Less than an hour after the judge issued his order, Trump filed paperwork indicating he is appealing the decision. The order stems from the US supreme court’s 29 June decision not to review Trump’s appeal. Trump had asked for the supreme court to weigh his appeal after lower courts repeatedly rejected his fight against this verdict. When Trump and Carroll’s teams agreed on the deposit, part of the deal was that she could collect the Cris held money if certain appeals related developments took place – including a supreme court refusal to hear his case, as happened several weeks ago. Carroll’s legal team, helmed by high-profile attorney Roberta Kaplan, pushed for the swift release of these funds after last month’s supreme court decision. Roberta Kaplan argued that enough was enough in a 30 June court filing. “This time around, he remarkably seeks to further delay Carroll’s collection of the judgment awarded to her in 2023 by stating that he is considering whether to move for reconsideration of the Supreme Court’s denial of his petition,” she said. “But this is the end of the line.” “After four years of litigation across every level of the federal court system, it is time for this case to end,” she also said. “And under the Court’s Stipulation and Order, Carroll is now entitled to obtain payment of the money due under the judgment.” In a 1 July letter, Roberta Kaplan also asked the judge to expedite the schedule for legal filings around the disbursement of money. They said that Trump has asked the supreme court to rehear his request for review of the case. If Carroll received the money, and the supreme court wound up taking on the case and ruling in his favor after disbursement, Trump would suffer an “unrecoverable loss”, he alleges. Legal experts believe that it’s unlikely the second circuit court of appeals would rule in Trump’s favor. “I think that would be a really tough argument,” Bryan Sullivan, a partner with Early Sullivan Wright Gizer & McRae LLP , said earlier this week of efforts to secure a second circuit stay, for example. “I think Roberta Kaplan said it best: He’s at the end of the line here.” Trump could request a stay from the US supreme court, but legal veterans told the Guardian this is also unlikely to succeed. They have also said that the supreme court almost never green-lights petitions for rehearing, making this last-ditch effort all the more ephemeral. “That’s really the only mechanism that’s left,” said Neama Rahmani, founder of West Coast Trial Lawyers and a former federal prosecutor, before the decision came down.