US judge orders Trump to pay writer E. Jean Carroll $6.5 million for assault, defamation

NEW YORK – A US judge ordered President Donald Trump on July 8 to pay writer E. Jean Carroll US$5 million (S$6.5 million) after a civil jury found that he sexually assaulted and defamed her.

Last week, the US Supreme Court refused to hear Trump’s appeal against the original May 2023 judgment ordering him to pay US$2 million in damages for sexual assault and US$3 million for defamatory statements.

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.

By declining to hear the appeal, the Supreme Court made the judgment final.

On July 8, federal judge Lewis Kaplan ordered that the US$5 million Trump had been required to deposit with the court be paid.

The ruling also requires payment of unspecified accrued interest.

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.

In late May, US media reported that Carroll herself was under criminal investigation, described as the latest example of Trump’s willingness to use the justice system against his enemies.

The investigation, opened by Justice Department prosecutors, seeks to determine if Carroll lied under oath during several depositions against Trump, CNN and The New York Times reported. AFP