President Donald Trump dropped his final challenge to the $5.6 million payout to writer E. Jean Carroll, ending the case she won against him in 2023.
Trump agreed to dismiss his appeal "with prejudice," meaning he can never bring it again, according to a Sept. 25 order from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit. The president also withdrew his bid to make Carroll return the money, according to the 70-word agreement his attorney, Josh Halpern, signed with her lawyers.
The appeals court's order reached the Manhattan federal court's docket Tuesday.
"In what I believe is a first for my eyes, Trump withdraws his appeal fighting the payout of $5M in damages to E. Jean Carroll," New York Daily News reporter Molly Crane-Newman wrote on X.
A 2023 jury found Trump liable for sexually abusing Carroll in a Bergdorf Goodman department store dressing room in Manhattan in the mid-1990s and for defaming her, and awarded her $5 million, ABC News reported.
After the Supreme Court declined on June 29 to hear Trump's appeal, U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan ordered the money released on July 8. He rejected Trump's argument that it should stay in a court account while Trump asked the justices to reconsider, the judge wrote in a memorandum.
"In the last analysis, defendant has been stalling this case for years," Lewis Kaplan wrote. "It is time for him to 'do equity' and pay the judgment."
"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 legal team said in a statement to NBC News after the ruling.
The court sent $5,625,005.48, the judgment plus interest, to Carroll's lawyers in July, the district court docket shows. On July 10, Trump asked the appeals court to block the payout or, if the money was already gone, order Carroll to return it, according to his motion.
"Plaintiff has repeatedly stated publicly that she intends to give away money collected from President Trump, and has even created a foundation to distribute the funds," Halpern wrote.
Carroll later asked the appeals court to wait until the Supreme Court acted on Trump's request to reconsider, but Trump opposed waiting, according to a July 30 order from Circuit Judge Eunice C. Lee. Lee put the motion on hold until Aug. 18.
The Supreme Court turned down Trump's request to reconsider on Aug. 17, SCOTUSblog reported.
"Now that the Supreme Court has denied the petition, his motion and this appeal are moot," Carroll attorney Roberta Kaplan, who is not related to the judge, wrote to the appeals court that day.
On Sept. 18, the appeals court ordered Trump to say within 14 days whether his motion was moot, meaning there was nothing left for the court to decide, and whether he would withdraw it, according to the order.
Trump agreed to the dismissal one week later, before the letter was due, court records show. Under the agreement, each side will pay its own legal costs.
Trump and the Justice Department asked the Supreme Court in July to take up his appeal of a separate $83.3 million defamation verdict another jury awarded Carroll, SCOTUSblog reported. The justices are likely to consider that request this fall, according to SCOTUSblog.
