A US judge on Wednesday authorized the payment of a multimillion-dollar verdict to magazine writer E. Jean Carroll to satisfy a 2023 civil verdict in which a jury found President Donald Trump liable for sexually abusing and defaming her.US District Judge Lewis Kaplan in Manhattan ordered the disbursement of nearly $5.8 million to the former Elle magazine advice columnist, representing the original $5 million verdict plus interest.The funds had been held in escrow while Trump appealed the verdict, but the US Supreme Court on June 29 declined to take up the Republican president’s case. None of the nine justices, including three appointed by Trump, noted dissents.For all the latest headlines, follow our Google News channel online or via the app.Trump appealed Kaplan’s order to the federal appeals court in Manhattan, less than an hour after the judge issued it.“The American People stand with President Trump as they demand an immediate end to all of the Witch Hunts, including the Democrat-funded travesty of the Carroll Hoaxes,” a spokesperson for Trump’s lawyers said in a statement.Lawyers for Carroll had no immediate comment.
Trump’s lawyers warn of ‘weaponization’ of legal system
In a Tuesday night court filing, Trump’s lawyers said Carroll should wait to collect damages until after the Supreme Court reviewed Trump’s renewed bid to overturn the verdict.The lawyers said Trump would be irreparably harmed and face “unrecoverable loss” if Carroll fulfils her stated intention to give away the money, because once she does the money likely could not be recovered.They also said letting Carroll recover, only to have the Supreme Court grant a rehearing, would “undermine public confidence in an orderly judicial process” at a time when Trump’s supporters and some critics, according to his lawyers, voice “concerns about politically motivated weaponization of the legal system.”Trump submitted a petition to the Supreme Court on Wednesday to rehear his appeal. The Supreme Court rarely takes up appeals after initially turning them down.
