President Donald Trump’s last-minute appeal of a court order to pay writer E. Jean Carroll more than $5 million cannot stop the money from going out the door, legal experts suggest.
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Trump’s lawyers to the Second Circuit Court of Appeals moments after U.S. District Judge Lewis A. Kaplan the court clerk to release the funds Wednesday.
The order directs the clerk to disburse $5 million — plus nearly $780,000 in interest — from an escrow account where Trump had parked the money while he appealed.
“What does the appeal mean? In and of itself, nothing,” Chris Geidner, a legal journalist who publishes the Law Dork newsletter, wrote on X. “The order is the order, so unless Judge Lewis A. Kaplan or the Second Circuit does something to stop the judge’s order from being in effect, the clerk’s office is disbursing the money.”
In other words, filing an appeal doesn’t automatically freeze a judge’s order. Trump would need a court to grant a separate stay — a formal pause — to actually stop the payment.
“Appealing a disbursement order … man, have some self-respect!” Liz Dye wrote on Bluesky. “This is the kind of amazing lawyering you’d expect from Alina Habba’s junior partner.”
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“He is such a cheap, judgment-dodging S—,” legal analyst Katie Phang wrote on Bluesky, linking to the notice of appeal.
“After four years of litigation across every level of the federal court system, it is time for this case to end,” Carroll’s attorney Roberta Kaplan wrote last week. “It is time for him to pay Carroll.”
According to SCOTUSblog, the Supreme Court declined to hear Trump’s challenge of the $5 million verdict on June 29.
None of the nine justices noted a dissent — including three Trump had appointed.
Trump has also asked the Supreme Court to reconsider that denial. Roberta Kaplan called the bid likely to fail, noting that rehearing is “an even more extraordinary remedy, granted in only narrow circumstances.” The court has not yet ruled.
Meanwhile, Trump separately owes Carroll $83.3 million from a 2024 defamation verdict. That case is also headed to the Supreme Court.
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