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The Trump Justice Department has launched a criminal investigation into writer E. Jean Carroll, who accused President Donald Trump of sexual assault. The investigation, led by the U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois, is reportedly focused on whether Carroll committed perjury during her civil lawsuits against President Trump. In those lawsuits, Carroll was awarded judgments totaling nearly $90 million for sexual assault and defamation.
The investigation comes after a federal jury in New York found President Trump liable in 2023 for sexually abusing Carroll in a Manhattan department store dressing room in the 1990s and later defaming her. Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, who previously represented Trump in the Carroll case, has recused himself from the investigation.
According to multiple sources, the probe is examining Carroll's 2022 deposition, in which she claimed she received no outside funding for her lawsuit against Trump. However, it was later revealed that Reid Hoffman, co-founder of LinkedIn, helped cover some of Carroll's legal expenses. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second District found that Carroll had "plausibly represented" that she forgot about the limited outside funding.
The investigation is part of a series of DOJ probes into political adversaries of President Trump, many of which have faced legal challenges. The DOJ has not commented on the investigation, and Carroll's attorneys have also declined to comment.
President Trump has denied the accusations and has appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn the judgments against him.
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