Donald Trump seeks more time to pay $5M sex abuse settlement to E Jean Carroll; latter senses conspiracy
US President Donald Trump is seeking more time to pay a $5 million civil judgment against author E Jean Carroll on sexual abuse and defamation charges, a move that Carroll’s legal team says “appears to be nothing more than another delaying game.”Trump’s lawyers asked the federal court to extend the deadline to July 14, saying his new lead lawyer Josh Halpern needed more time to familiarize himself with the case after former lawyer Justin Smith left to serve as a federal judge, The Guardian reported.In 2023, a jury found Trump responsible for sexually abusing Carroll in 1996 and for defaming her after Carroll publicly accused Trump in 2019, awarding her $5 million in damages. Trump placed the money in an escrow account but is seeking to delay the release of the money, which has now grown to nearly $5.8 million, including interest.Carroll’s attorney, Roberta Kaplan, argued that Trump has enough time to hire new lawyers and said the extension request was intended to buy time before pursuing new legal challenges, including asking the U.S. Supreme Court to reconsider the verdict and hear an appeal in a separate $83 million defamation case.“We can only assume that the defendant is seeking… to buy time so that he can try to concoct some new basis to delay payment to the plaintiff, possibly related to his upcoming petition and motion for rehearing,” Kaplan was quoted as saying by The Guardian.Trump has always denied Carroll’s accusations, saying the civil verdict was politically motivated and vowed to keep the case pending after the Supreme Court declined to hear his appeal.
