Four years of litigation reach a court-ordered end

President Trump spent Wednesday, July 8, at the NATO summit in Ankara, Turkey. Back in New York, a federal judge was closing the door on one of his longest-running legal fights. U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan ordered the release of nearly $5.8 million to writer E. Jean Carroll — the $5 million a jury awarded her in 2023, plus roughly $800,000 in accumulated interest — rejecting Trump's latest attempt to delay the payment.

The order followed a clear sequence: the U.S. Supreme Court had declined on June 29 to hear Trump's appeal of the verdict, doing so without any noted dissents from the nine justices, including the three Trump himself appointed. Carroll's attorneys moved quickly afterward to collect, telling the court in a filing that "after four years of litigation across every level of the federal court system, it is time for this case to end."

What the jury actually found, and what's still pending

The underlying case traces back to a 2022 lawsuit Carroll filed in New York, alleging Trump sexually assaulted her in a dressing room at Bergdorf Goodman in Manhattan following a chance encounter in the mid-1990s. A jury in May 2023 found Trump liable for that abuse, and separately found him liable for defamation over comments he made denying her account after leaving his first term — statements in which he called her allegations a "con job" and a "hoax." The jury awarded Carroll $5 million in damages for both claims combined.

That's only part of Trump's total exposure in the broader Carroll litigation. A separate but related case, tried before a different jury, resulted in an $83 million defamation award against Trump — that judgment remains tied up in its own ongoing appeals process and is not affected by Wednesday's order. Trump has said he plans to petition the Supreme Court to review that larger verdict as well, with a filing deadline of July 28.

Kaplan's blunt assessment: "stalling this case for years"

Judge Kaplan didn't mince words in explaining his decision to release the funds despite Trump's request for more time. "In the last analysis, defendant has been stalling this case for years," Kaplan wrote in his order. "A jury unanimously concluded that he sexually abused and defamed plaintiff and awarded her damages accordingly. The judgment on that verdict has been upheld on appeal. En banc rehearing has been denied. The Supreme Court has denied certiorari without dissent." He added a pointed closing line: "It is time for him to 'do equity' and pay the judgment."

Kaplan also addressed the specific risk Trump's attorneys had raised — that releasing the funds now, before the Supreme Court rules on a long-shot reconsideration petition, could leave Trump unable to recover the money if he ultimately won on appeal. Kaplan rejected that concern directly, writing that disbursing the funds "would not cause defendant irreparable harm," and noting that in the "highly unlikely event" the Supreme Court granted rehearing, reversed itself, and then overturned the underlying judgment, Trump could simply sue to recover any funds erroneously distributed.

The appeals court moved just as fast

Trump's legal team didn't wait long to respond. Hours after Kaplan's ruling, his attorneys filed a notice of appeal and asked the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit for an emergency administrative stay — essentially an immediate, temporary pause specifically requested to block the money from moving before the broader appeal could even be heard. The Second Circuit rejected that request the same night, in a one-page order stating simply: "It is hereby ordered that the motion for administrative stay is denied."

That denial doesn't resolve Trump's underlying appeal of Kaplan's order — the Second Circuit will still consider his broader arguments for overturning it on the merits at some later point. But procedurally, it means Kaplan's order can be executed immediately rather than waiting on that appellate review, clearing the practical path for Carroll to actually receive the money now rather than months from now.

The argument that didn't persuade the judge

Trump's attorneys built their delay request around a specific asymmetry-of-harm argument. They contended that Carroll, 82, "faces only temporary delay" for which she'd simply collect additional interest if the payment were held up further — a manageable, fully compensable inconvenience in their framing. Trump, by contrast, they argued, "faces unrecoverable loss," pointing to Carroll's own public statements that she intends to give away any money she collects from him, reportedly through a foundation established for that purpose. Once distributed to third parties, his lawyers wrote, those funds "likely will not be recoverable."

Carroll's attorneys pushed back hard against that framing in their own filing, accusing Trump of having "dragged out the proceedings, filed meritless appeals," and, quoting the district court's own characterization, having "slow-rolled his defenses, asserting or inventing a new one each time his prior effort to delay the case fails." Kaplan's ruling and the Second Circuit's swift denial suggest the courts found that characterization more persuasive than Trump's asymmetry argument — a pattern that, after four years of litigation, appellate review, an en banc rehearing denial, and a Supreme Court certiorari denial without dissent, reflects a judiciary that appears to have concluded the appropriate window for further delay tactics has closed.

What Trump's team is saying now

A spokesperson for Trump's legal team responded to Kaplan's order with a statement that didn't address the legal specifics directly: "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." Trump has maintained throughout the litigation that he does not know Carroll and committed no wrongdoing, a position the two separate juries in his two civil trials against her did not accept.

With the Second Circuit's stay denial in place, the transfer of funds from the court's escrow account to Carroll's legal team may have already occurred, though the court docket had not confirmed that transfer as of Wednesday night. Whatever happens with Trump's broader appeal of Kaplan's order, or with his separate, still-pending effort to get the Supreme Court to reconsider its certiorari denial, the immediate practical outcome is clear: after four years of litigation, Carroll is now positioned to actually receive the money a jury awarded her back in May 2023.

*This article was researched using publicly available reporting from NBC News, ABC News, CNN, The Washington Post, CNBC, and MS NOW coverage of Judge Lewis Kaplan's order and the Second Circuit's ruling. It is intended for informational purposes.*