Lawyers for Donald Trump have launched a desperate bid to avoid paying damages to E. Jean Carroll, the former Elle columnist whom a jury found the president liable for sexually abusing.
In filings submitted Tuesday night in a New York court, Trump’s legal team argued to a judge that Carroll should not receive the $5 million in damages awarded to her in 2023 until the conclusion of a renewed Supreme Court bid to have the case thrown out.
The nation’s highest court last month rejected Trump’s appeal seeking to overturn the civil verdict and order a new trial. In May 2023, a jury unanimously found Trump liable for sexually abusing Carroll at New York City’s Bergdorf Goodman department store in the 1990s and for defaming her by denying the incident took place.
Trump was ordered to pay Carroll $5 million in damages, a figure that has grown to $5.8 million with interest.
It is extremely rare for the Supreme Court to reconsider an appeal after originally rejecting it.
Trump asked the Supreme Court to rehear his case on Monday, but a Tuesday docket entry said the appeal was “not accepted for filing,” without further explanation.
In Tuesday’s filings, Trump’s legal team also argued that the president would suffer an “unrecoverable loss” if he is forced to pay Carroll the millions in damages.
They claimed Carroll has stated that she intends to “give away all funds that she collects from him,” making the money far more difficult to recover if Trump ultimately prevails.
The lawyers added that maintaining the funds in a court-supervised escrow account until the Supreme Court fully rejects Trump’s appeal would “completely protect” Carroll while avoiding “irreparable harm” to Trump.
“Plaintiff loses nothing that cannot be compensated by interest; President Trump faces the real risk of losing funds that will likely never be recovered,” the filing states.
In January 2024, a separate jury ordered Trump to pay Carroll $83.3 million in damages for defaming her in 2019 while denying her allegation that he raped her in the Manhattan department store.
Trump is also appealing that judgment in a case that could ultimately end up before the Supreme Court.
The Daily Beast has contacted Trump’s and Carroll’s legal teams for comment.
