Kathrine Frich
Lawyers representing Carroll are now aggressively demanding an immediate payout.
High-stakes legal battles often drag on long after the jury goes home.
The final verdict is usually just the start of a grueling financial standoff.
One expensive courtroom fight has just entered another tense chapter of delays.
Fighting the payout
Donald Trump is trying to stop a multimillion-dollar payment to E. Jean Carroll. He wants a federal judge in New York to keep the cash locked away while the Supreme Court reviews his case again.
His legal team submitted a fresh request on Tuesday evening. They insist Carroll cannot touch the funds until justices officially reject this newest petition, according to the Daily Mail.
This maneuver comes shortly after the top court denied his original appeal last month. Refusing to give up, he filed another formal request on Monday to force a second look.
A growing bill
The original penalty was set at $5 million. Thanks to mounting interest, the total debt has now climbed to roughly $5.8 million over the past year.
Trump actually deposited $5.5 million into a court-controlled bank account earlier in the legal process. Because the money is sitting right there in a secure account, lawyers representing Carroll are now aggressively demanding an immediate payout.
This specific fight links back to a 2022 civil lawsuit. A jury found the leader liable for sexually abusing Carroll in a Manhattan department store dressing room in 1996, the Daily Mail reported.
The legal troubles do not stop there. He also faces a staggering $83.3 million penalty from a separate defamation lawsuit involving the same writer. That massive sum remains frozen while the courts handle another round of appeals.
The courtroom arguments
The defense team has constantly complained about the original trial judge. Lawyers claim Judge Lewis Kaplan made deeply unfair choices when he oversaw the initial hearings.
His lawyers argued the jury should never have heard testimony from two other women who accused the president of past abuse. They also strongly objected to the court allowing a 2005 television tape where he bragged about grabbing women.
The 2nd US Circuit Court of Appeals dismissed those arguments last year. Another panel of appellate judges threw out his next appeal in June 2025 before the case reached Washington.
For months, the Supreme Court delayed scheduling the case for a conference without explaining why. Now, legal observers are simply waiting to see how long the justices will take to answer this final request.
Sources: Daily Mail
