Lumpy-Dumb-Dumb filed an emergency motion late Wednesday demanding a federal appeals court retrieve $5.8 million paid to E. Jean Carroll. The request arrives six weeks after the funds cleared and 14 months after a jury unanimously found him liable for sexual abuse. It characterizes the transfer as a “correctable oversight.”
“We are simply asking the court to maintain the status quo while legitimate appellate options are exhausted,” said lead attorney Alina Habba in a statement. “Ms. Carroll’s receipt of the funds before all appeals are resolved constitutes a serious procedural irregularity.”
The former president has already exhausted every available appeal. The Supreme Court denied his petitions 13 times between February and June. Judge Lewis Kaplan ordered the payment released on July 9 after those denials. The Second Circuit refused to block the transfer on July 8. All legal thresholds required for payment were met. The payment was funded by a bond posted by the former president’s campaign committee, records indicate.
The new motion claims the district court failed to properly apply Rule 8 of the Federal Rules of Appellate Procedure. It demands an injunction pending one final Supreme Court review. Legal experts note that such an injunction requires a showing of likely success on the merits. The former president has not prevailed on any merits argument in this case.
The filing describes the payment as “irreparable harm” to the moving party. It does not address the court’s finding that he sexually abused Carroll in a Bergdorf Goodman dressing room. In a deposition, the former president described the assault as something Carroll “enjoyed.” That testimony was part of the trial record.
Carroll’s attorney Roberta Kaplan responded with a brief opposing the motion. She noted the funds have already cleared. “Mr. the former president is free to continue his quixotic Supreme Court campaign,” she wrote. “He is not free to treat a final judgment like an erroneous Venmo transaction.”
The former president has repeatedly defamed Carroll since the verdict. A separate $92 million defamation judgment against him remains under appeal. That case is also before the Supreme Court. A ruling on presidential immunity for defamatory statements made while in office is expected next term.
The emergency motion refers only to “the underlying dispute” and “the contested payment.” It includes a footnote stating the plaintiff’s possession of the money amounts to “ongoing injury.”
The court has not yet scheduled a hearing. A clerk indicated the motion was being processed under standard appellate timelines. Nothing in the filing suggests the factual basis for the verdict has changed. The funds remain in Carroll’s possession, where they have been since July 9. The former president’s motion argues this arrangement constitutes an “unauthorized withdrawal” from his estate. The court docketed the motion as “the former president v. Carroll, Emergency Injunction Re: Return of Funds.” A clerk confirmed the filing fee had been paid from a campaign account.
