Trump asks judge to delay Carroll payout pending Supreme Court bid

President Donald Trump’s attorneys asked a federal judge in Manhattan to block the release of nearly $5.8 million to writer E. Jean Carroll, arguing that Supreme Court proceedings over a $5 million civil verdict have not formally ended. The filing seeks to delay payment on a 2023 jury award that found Trump liable for sexually abusing and defaming Carroll, with accrued interest raising the amount Carroll’s lawyers say she is owed.

In a late Tuesday court filing, Trump’s lawyers Josh Halpern and Michael Madaio said the funds cannot be distributed while Trump’s request for the Supreme Court to reconsider its refusal to hear his appeal remains pending. The Supreme Court denied Trump’s petition on June 29, with no noted dissents and no explanation of its reasoning.

The dispute turns on an agreement reached while Trump appealed the verdict. Under that arrangement, Trump deposited $5.5 million with the court as security. Such a deposit functions as a court-held backstop: it preserves funds to satisfy a judgment if appeals fail, while preventing immediate collection during the appellate process.

Trump’s lawyers told U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan that the agreement permits collection only after specified appellate events have concluded. They argued that a petition for rehearing keeps the matter active before the Supreme Court. “Collection cannot begin while proceedings remain pending before the Supreme Court, which is currently the case,” they wrote.

Carroll’s legal team has taken the opposite view. Her lawyer Roberta Kaplan, who is not related to the judge, asked the court on June 30 to release the money after the Supreme Court declined to take Trump’s appeal. “This is the end of the line,” she wrote, adding, “It is time for him to pay Carroll.”

Roberta Kaplan also argued that a rehearing request is unlikely to succeed and that further delay would be unfair to Carroll and contrary to the public interest. Earlier Tuesday, she submitted a proposed order that would direct payment from the court registry if Judge Kaplan agrees there is no legal basis to keep the money in place.

Rehearing request tied to separate defamation case

Trump’s new Supreme Court petition, included with the Tuesday filing, says rehearing is warranted because he plans to ask the justices to consider whether presidential immunity applies in a separate Carroll lawsuit involving statements he made while in office. Trump also lost that case in Manhattan federal court.

In January 2024, a jury ordered Trump to pay Carroll $83.3 million in damages for defaming her after she accused him in 2019 of raping her in a New York department store in the mid-1990s. Trump strongly denied the allegation.

Trump’s lawyers said a Supreme Court ruling on immunity in that case could affect the $5 million verdict because Carroll’s attorneys introduced evidence at the earlier trial involving statements Trump made while president, along with statements he made in 2022 after leaving the White House. The $5 million verdict relates to Carroll’s underlying allegation that Trump attacked her and to comments he made about her in 2022.

The lawyers also cited a provision requiring repayment to Trump if the verdict were reversed. They told the court that Carroll has said she intends to give away funds she collects from Trump, and argued that money distributed to third parties may be difficult to recover.

Trump listed the Carroll verdict as a liability in his 2025 financial disclosure report released last month. Judge Kaplan has not yet ruled on whether the court-held funds should be released.

This story draws on original reporting from CNBC.