President-elect Donald Trump suffered a legal setback on Monday after a federal appeals court upheld a $5 million judgement favoring writer E. Jean Carroll, who accused him of sexual abuse and defamation. However, even if he ends up having to pay, the amount is unlikely to make a dent in his finances.
The court argued that Trump's defense did not manage to prove that the "district court erred in any of the challenged rulings." "Further, he has not carried his burden to show that any claimed error or combination of claimed errors affected is substantial rights as required to warrant a new trial."
A jury awarded the amount to Carroll last year after finding Trump liable to sexually abusing her in the 1990s and defaming her after she made the allegations public. Carroll said in a 2019 magazine article that Trump, who was the President at the time, had raped her in a dressing room at a department store in Manhattan.
Trump denied her claims and accused her of lying. He also said she was motivated by a desire to generate sales of a book in making the allegations.
Carroll is suing the former President in two cases in federal court in Manhattan. One case was filed in 2019, after he first denied her rape allegations. The second was filed this fall, after he repeated his claims about her motivation behind the allegations. She was also awarded $83.3 million for the other case.
Should Trump end up having to pay both amounts in full, they would still not amount a sizable percentage of his net worth.
A recent report from Forbes explained that his fortune rose by a staggering $3.6 billion in 2024, more than doubling in size. The outlet detailed that his net worth went from $2.5 billion to $6.1 billion mainly as a result of his majority stake in the parent company of his social media platform, Truth Social. He achieved the figure after his election victory. It has dropped since but remained consistently above $5.1 billion. It clocked in at $6.51 billion on December 20 when he transferred his stake to a trust.
It is not certain the president-elect will have to dole out the money just yet. Spokesperson Steven Cheung reacted to the ruling, saying that "the American People have re-elected President Trump with an overwhelming mandate, and they demand an immediate end to the political weaponization of our justice system and a swift dismissal of all of the Witch Hunts, including the Democrat-funded Carroll Hoax, which will continue to be appealed."
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