Left: Journalist E. Jean Carroll departs from the courthouse after the conclusion of the damages trial against Donald Trump at Manhattan Federal Court on Friday, Jan. 26, 2024, in New York City (John Angelillo, Alamy Live News via AP). Right: Republican former President Donald Trump speaks at a primary election night party in Nashua, N.H., Jan. 23, 2024. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke).
President Donald Trump is once again trying to delay paying millions of dollars he owes in the long-running defamation case brought and won by writer E. Jean Carroll, according to a flurry of court filings.
The latest evasion was noted by Carroll's attorney Roberta Kaplan after the U.S. Supreme Court, without explanation, declined to hear Trump's appeal of the $5 million verdict on Monday.
"Yesterday, the United States Supreme Court denied, without dissent, Defendant Donald Trump's petition for a writ of certiorari—a final outcome that, as the Parties agreed and this Court expressly ordered, entitles Carroll to 'collect any moneys owed by Defendant to Plaintiff,'" Kaplan wrote in a memo — one of four filings with the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York on Tuesday.
Soon after the Supreme Court issued the denial in an order list, Trump posted on Truth Social, promising he would "continue the fight against this Weaponization and Lawfare."
Then, one of Trump's attorneys apparently made good on that promise — or at least an effort to see it through.
"Within minutes of that Truth Social post, Defendant's counsel contacted Carroll's undersigned counsel to inquire whether Carroll would consent to a further stay of enforcement of the judgment in this action so that Defendant can ask the Supreme Court to reconsider its denial of certiorari in her case," Carroll's filing goes on.
This latest Trump request, Kaplan pointed out, directly goes against a June 2023 agreement between the parties and a concomitant $5.55 million bond posted by Trump to pursue his appeals.
The stipulation reads, in relevant part:
After the latest of (a) the mandate issued by the Second Circuit in connection with the Appeal; (b) a denial of a timely filed petition for writ of certiorari to the Supreme Court (if any) in connection with the Appeal; or (c) upon the Supreme Court's granting of certiorari, an order of the Supreme Court in connection with the Appeal, Plaintiff may collect any moneys owed by Defendant to Plaintiff under the terms of the Judgment, as may be modified on appeal or court order, from the amount deposited with the Court by Defendant, inclusive of any interest earned on such funds less any fees.
And that's what happened on Monday, Kaplan notes.
Still, Trump does not want to pay.
"Having lost his bid to obtain review before the Supreme Court, Defendant continues 'being dilatory' and 'slowroll[ing] his defenses, asserting or inventing a new one each time his prior effort to delay the case fails,'" Carroll's filing continues. "This time around, he remarkably seeks to further delay Carroll's collection of the judgment awarded to her in 2023 by stating that he is considering whether to move for reconsideration of the Supreme Court's denial of his petition. But this is the end of the line."
Kaplan writes that after explaining the stipulation to Trump's counsel, the 45th and 47th president's attorney requested the plaintiff's consent to a "new stay or continuance" so Trump could ask the nation's high court to reconsider its denial.
"That afternoon, Carroll's undersigned counsel notified Defendant's counsel that Carroll does not consent and inquired whether Defendant would agree to stipulate to the immediate disbursement of the funds owed to Carroll," Kaplan goes on.
In turn, Trump's attorney told Kaplan the defendant would not have an answer prior to July 2, according to the filing. Kaplan then replied that her client was not inclined to wait.
Now, Carroll wants the court to simply enforce the 2023 stipulation.
"The Court should enforce the plain language of the existing Stipulation and Order and direct immediate disbursement of funds," the filing goes on. "Defendant Trump obtained a stay of execution pending appeal only by explicitly agreeing that the funds placed in the Court's account would be disbursed upon the conditions set out in the Stipulation and Order. Those conditions were satisfied when the Supreme Court denied his petition for certiorari. Nothing in the Stipulation and Order, the Federal Rules, or the Supreme Court's Rules permits him to disregard the parties' agreement subsequently so ordered by Your Honor based on the fact that he is considering seeking reconsideration of the denial of certiorari."
The other three motions filed by Carroll on Tuesday include the formal motion for disbursement, a proposed order for withdrawal of the funds, and a letter motion to expedite the briefing schedule should the court find arguments necessary to resolve the $5.55 million deposit.
In the underlying case, in May 2023, a Manhattan jury found that Trump sexually abused Carroll in the dressing room of New York City department store Bergdorf Goodman sometime in the late 1990s — and later defamed her when he strongly denied the allegations and publicly denied ever knowing Carroll.
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