Trump’s DOJ Opens Retaliatory Criminal Investigation Against E. Jean Carroll, Whose Civil Suits Won $88 Million in Damages Against Him

The Justice Department has opened a criminal investigation into E. Jean Carroll, the longtime columnist whose two civil suits resulted in an $88 million judgment against Trump for sexual abuse and defamation. The probe centers on Reid Hoffman, the billionaire Democratic donor whose nonprofit helped fund Carroll’s legal expenses. It also examines whether Carroll committed perjury in a 2022 deposition when she stated her legal costs were being covered on contingency. Notably, Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche—who previously represented Trump in the Carroll matters—recused himself from the investigation.

CNN reports:

The investigation is focused on whether Carroll committed perjury in testimony tied to her two civil lawsuits against the president—one alleging he sexually abused Carroll in a New York department store in the mid-1990s, and a second for defaming her when in 2019 he repeatedly denied the assault, said she wasn’t his type, and claimed she made it up to boost book sales. Prosecutors’ theory hinges on a 2022 deposition statement by Carroll that she received no outside funding for her lawsuit, though it was later revealed that billionaire Reid Hoffman had paid some legal fees and expenses.

Senior leaders at the Justice Department referred the investigation to federal prosecutors in Chicago, according to two sources familiar with the matter. While Carroll’s deposition took place in New York, one of the individuals who helped cover some of Carroll’s legal fees, Hoffman, has a nonprofit based in Chicago. Hoffman’s support of the case caught Trump’s attorneys off guard when it came to light on the eve of trial.

A federal judge had already ruled that evidence of Hoffman’s funding had no bearing on Carroll’s allegations and barred it from being presented to jurors. That ruling didn’t stop the DOJ from opening a probe anyway. Carroll’s civil verdicts, which have survived multiple rounds of federal appeals, represent the legal system’s most direct finding against Trump for his personal conduct. The investigation—targeting his accuser, her funder, and a funding arrangement a federal judge already deemed irrelevant—appears aimed squarely at retribution.

The Executive Watch is a project of the Institute for the Study of Modern Authoritarianism, and its flagship publication The UnPopulist, to track in an ongoing way the abuses of the power of the American presidency. It sorts these abuses into five categories: Personal Grift, Political Corruption, Presidential Retribution, Power Consolidation, and Policy Illegality. Click the category of interest to get an overview of all the abuses under it.

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