‘The eagle has landed’: E. Jean Carroll receives $5.6 million from Donald Trump after Supreme Court move

3 min readUpdated: Jul 15, 2026 02:12 PM Writer E. Jean Carroll has received more than $5.6 million from US President Donald Trump after the Supreme Court allowed a jury verdict holding him liable for sexual abuse and defamation to stand, according to court records and Carroll’s lawyers.
The payment, which includes the $5 million jury award plus interest, was made on Monday from an escrow account where it had been held since the 2023 verdict, news agency Associated Press reported.
Carroll’s lawyer, Roberta Kaplan, confirmed the payment on Tuesday. In a statement, Kaplan expressed their pleasure in reporting that Carroll had received the damages payment. Later, Carroll herself shared the news on Substack, stating, “the eagle has landed.” Trump’s lawyers have vowed to continue appealing the decision. Shortly after the jury ruled against him, Trump deposited the money into an escrow account.

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 consently denied any sexual involvement with Carroll, now 82, a former advice column. 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 dant past.Story continues below this ad
Trump is also appealing $83 million defamation award granted to Carroll 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.
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