The judge ordered the release of Trump’s $5 million in damages to E. Jean Carroll

A judge has ordered writer E. Jean Carroll to pay more than $5 million (£3.7m) to US President Donald Trump after he was found guilty of sexual assault and defamation in a civil suit three years ago.

Judge Louis Kaplan issued an order on Wednesday ordering a secretary to release the money, along with interest, to an account Trump kept.

Trump was pushing to delay the $5.8 million payment to ask the Supreme Court to reconsider its decision not to hear an appeal of the case.

In the year In May 2023, a New York jury awarded Carol damages, alleging that Trump sexually assaulted her in the 1990s and falsely claimed the allegations on social media. Trump has denied the allegations.

The BBC has contacted Trump’s lawyers for comment.

Carroll, a former magazine columnist, accused Trump of assaulting her in the dressing room of a Bergdorf Goodman department store in Manhattan in the mid-1990s, and later denied the allegations in 2022 and defamed her on Truth Social.

Trump took the damage in a court-controlled account shortly after the ruling, and was held there as the appeals process ended. The judge did not say when the money would be released to Carroll.

Judge Lewis Kaplan, who presided over the president’s civil trial, repeatedly said jurors improperly allowed evidence to influence their view of Trump.

A federal appeals court agreed with the jury’s verdict last year, saying Kaplan did not commit errors that warrant a new trial.

Trump in 2016 In 2024, the president appealed another jury decision that defamed Carroll and awarded him nearly $84 million. A panel of federal judges rejected his appeal of that decision last year.