Trump pays $7.2m to writer E. Jean Carroll for assault, defamation

NEW YORK - US President Donald Trump has paid US$5.6 million (S$7.2 million) to writer E. Jean Carroll after a civil jury found he sexually assaulted and defamed her, a court filing showed on July 14.

“Three years ago, a unanimous nine-person jury found President Trump liable for sexually assaulting and defaming E. Jean Carroll,” Carroll’s attorney, Roberta Kaplan, said in a statement.

“Today, we are pleased to report that she has received the damages payment the jury awarded her as a result of that verdict,” she added.

The US Supreme Court in late June refused to hear Trump’s appeal against the original May 2023 judgment, essentially making that decision final.

Carroll, a former journalist and columnist who is now 82, accused the president of assaulting her in a dressing room of a New York department store in 1996.

When the allegations were published in a 2019 book, the Republican billionaire called her a “nut job” and claimed she had fabricated her case.

In a separate defamation case in New York, Trump was ordered to pay US$83.3 million to Carroll. That judgment was upheld on appeal, but its enforcement remains suspended. AFP