President Donald Trump has initiated urgent legal action seeking to recover the $5.8 million defamation judgment awarded to writer E. Jean Carroll, arguing that her decision to move the funds into a retirement account rather than retain them in a court-controlled account has rendered the money "irretrievable."

A 2023 jury found Trump liable for sexually abusing Carroll in a 1996 department store dressing room and for subsequently defaming her publicly, according to PBS. The Supreme Court declined to hear Trump's appeal on June 29, and Carroll collected the full $5.8 million by July 14, court records show.

Trump's legal team characterized Carroll's investment decision as a "bait-and-switch," alleging she misled the court by indicating she would hold the funds in a secure account before redirecting them into stock market investments.

"President Trump faces irreparable harm," his lawyers wrote in their filing.

Carroll's attorneys countered that Trump's request is "procedurally improper" and noted it represents his seventh appeal across two related cases. They also pointed out that Judge Lewis Kaplan had previously stated Trump "has been stalling this case for years."

"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," Carroll's lawyers wrote in their response.

The underlying case stems from Carroll's allegation that Trump sexually assaulted her in a Bergdorf Goodman dressing room in the mid-1990s. Trump repeatedly denied the accusation, publicly stating Carroll was "not my type" and that the claim was fabricated, which formed the basis of the defamation verdict. The original lawsuit was filed under New York's Adult Survivors Act, a state law signed by Governor Kathy Hochul in 2022 that created a one-year window allowing adult survivors to file civil claims regardless of when the alleged abuse occurred.

The "two related cases" referenced by Carroll's attorneys include a separate federal defamation action in which a January 2024 jury ordered Trump to pay an additional $83.3 million over statements he made while president. That verdict, also presided over by Judge Kaplan, remains under appeal, bringing the combined Carroll judgments against Trump to nearly $90 million.

With the Supreme Court declining to review the $5.8 million judgment, Trump's direct appellate options for that verdict appear largely exhausted. His current filing shifts focus from the verdict itself to how Carroll has managed the collected funds, raising the narrower question of whether a judgment creditor's investment decisions can be challenged post-payment.