Donald Trump paid E. Jean Carroll $5.6 million in lawsuit proceeds less than two weeks ago; now he wants it back, using tactics that range from dubious to corrupt

(Radar Online, Facebook)

Donald Trump's attorneys are asking a federal judge in New York to order E. Jean Carroll to repay lawsuit proceeds Trump paid her less than two weeks ago. Carroll's legal team responded with fierce words that roughly translate to "No way, no how." Like many court cases, this one has moved slowly -- and Trump is doing his best to drag it out even further. So what's the latest, and where is this headed? For that, we turn to the UK Independent, which broke the story of Trump's latest legal maneuver. Under the headline "E. Jean Carroll's lawyers blast Trump's attempts to claw back money he was ordered to pay her; President Donald Trump already paid out millions in the sexual abuse and defamation case. Now he wants it back," Alex Woodward writes:

President Donald Trump is trying to force E Jean Carroll to pay back the $5.6 million he was ordered to pay the former Elle magazine writer after a federal jury found him liable for sexual abuse and defamation.

That money was disbursed to Carroll from a court-controlled escrow account on July 9.

But the president’s legal team is seeking an emergency injunction that would order Carroll to return the payment to the account in the hopes that the Supreme Court will grant him a legal Hail Mary and reverse the judgment, sending the money back to him.

Carroll's lawyers aren't the only ones displeased with Trump's latest legal stunt. U.S. Judge Lewis Kaplan (S.D. of New York) is not too keen on it either, as we learn in a report from People magazine: 

Trump’s legal team is seeking an emergency injunction that would force Carroll to return the amount she was paid following a judge’s July 8 ruling that ordered the payment process to begin, according to The Independent. 

The money, sent to Carroll from an escrow account overseen by the court, came three years after a federal jury found Trump, 80, liable in the case.  In ordering Trump to pay the $5.6 million, Judge Lewis Kaplan said that the president had spent years delaying the case despite repeated losses in court.

“Defendant has been stalling this case for years,” Judge Kaplan wrote in his ruling. “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.”

Kaplan also noted that the U.S. Supreme Court — including three justices appointed by Trump — declined to review the case “without dissent,” adding that “it is time” for the president to “pay the judgment.”

Court documents show Carroll's lawyers fired a blitzkrieg of disdain in Trump's direction, making it clear they find his tactics deplorable. From People: 

Carroll’s lawyers opposed Trump’s request for the injunction, writing that the request is “procedurally improper, substantively meritless, and yet another example of Defendant’s pattern of ‘slow-roll[ing] his defenses, asserting or inventing a new one each time his prior effort to delay the case fails.

“But rather than accept the reality that he lost, [Trump] has engaged in a series of maneuvers trying desperately to forestall payment.”

A report at The New Republic (TNR) notes the juxtaposition of Trump trying to skate from paying E. Jean Carroll while using the power of the presidency to significantly pad his personal bank account. The president certainly has no grounds to seek the court's mercy by pleading poverty, per TNR:

Donald Trump has made billions of dollars grifting the American public since returning to office, yet he’s still trying to find a way to weasel out of paying E. Jean Carroll. 

That sounds like the Donald Trump many Americans have come to know and despise. As for the history of the case, and the many procedural machinations involved, we return to Alex Woodward at the UK Independent: 

The payment to Carroll — more than three years after the jury’s verdict — “should have been the end of this case,” her lawyers said. “But Defendant now demands yet another unprecedented remedy. … The judgment here is final, the money has already been disbursed, and Carroll is entitled to keep it.”

Trump’s request also comes to the court “with very unclean hands” after repeating the same defamatory attacks against Carroll that lost him his case in the first place, her lawyers wrote.

A seven-year legal battle follows the first of two defamation lawsuits from Carroll, who accused Trump of assaulting her inside a Manhattan department store in the mid-1990s.

A federal jury unanimously awarded her $5 million after finding him liable for sexual abuse and then defaming her with his denials. A separate jury in 2024 ordered the president to pay Carroll another $83 million in additional defamation damages.

On July 8, Judge Kaplan ordered a court-monitored escrow account to begin payments from the initial verdict after the Supreme Court rejected the president’s appeal.

She then received $5,625,005.48.

That is a lot of money, but the tab does not end there. Perhaps that is why Trump appears desperate to avoid having to pay $83 million on top of the $5.625 million he already has paid -- and is trying to claw back. In essence, Trump created his own legal bog by failing to keep his mouth shut. Woodward writes:

Trump’s lawyers said Carroll should wait until the ​Supreme Court “fully” decides whether to re-hear the president’s attempt to overturn the verdict, otherwise he faces an “unrecoverable loss” of millions of dollars that will cause him "irreparable harm.”

Is anyone out there shedding a tear for Donald Trump's financial "woes," especially considering a report out yesterday from Thom Hartmann, indicating Trump appears to be making big bucks off Venezuelan oil? Hartmann writes:

In January, American troops captured Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro and replaced him with Vice President Delcy Rodriguez. Since then, the Trump administration has seized control of Venezuela’s oil exports, which make up roughly a quarter of that country’s entire economy.

The Financial Times reports that the move has generated about $13 billion in revenue so far. And the White House has been unusually quiet about what happened to all that money.

Maybe the judge in the Carroll case should force Trump to testify under oath about the missing $13 billion? That might solve a lot of legal issues in a hurry? Meanwhile, Trump seems to have other slick tricks up his sleeve, but the information highlighted in yellow below should bring Trump's challenge to a conclusion. Woodward reports:

Carroll’s lawyers now say he has run out of options.

“Defendant has lost before a jury, the district court, a unanimous Second Circuit panel, the full Second Circuit, en banc, and the Supreme Court of the United States. He agreed — in a signed stipulation — that Carroll could collect her judgment once his certiorari petition had been denied. That happened,” they wrote Monday. “Carroll should not have to wait any longer.”

Meanwhile, Trump’s Department of Justice (acting once again as his personal lawyer, at taxpayer expense) has joined his Supreme Court fight to prevent Carroll from receiving another $83 million from the president. Woodward writes:

Trump took the extraordinary step of trying to replace himself as a defendant with the U.S. government as he fights for “immunity” from having to pay her. 

A brief court filing signed by top Justice Department officials earlier this year claims there is “good cause” to pause the case and let the administration argue Trump’s immunity claims on his behalf.

The Supreme Court has not yet decided whether to hear that case. 

Can Trump lawfully claim immunity in a civil matter such as the Carroll case? We will consider that question in an upcoming post.