The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) has begun a criminal investigation into E. Jean Carroll, who has accused President Donald Trump of sexual assault. Carroll has filed two lawsuits against Trump, alleging sexual assault in the 1990s and defamation following his denial of the allegations. Trump has denied the claims.
The investigation focuses on whether Carroll committed perjury during a deposition in 2022, where she stated she was not receiving outside funding for her legal cases against Trump. In 2023, records revealed that Reid Hoffman, co-founder of LinkedIn, financed Carroll's legal actions, contradicting her earlier testimony.
During a deposition in October 2022, Trump's attorney, Alina Habba, questioned Carroll about her legal fees, to which Carroll responded that no one else was funding her. Following the revelation of Hoffman's contributions, Habba claimed that Carroll had perjured herself.
Carroll's legal team contended that she had simply forgotten about the funding at the time of her deposition and later clarified that her counsel had secured additional funding from a nonprofit organization for certain expenses.
The DOJ's investigation is being handled by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Illinois. Previous court rulings have found Trump liable in relation to Carroll's lawsuits, with a jury ordering him to pay $5 million for sexual assault and defamation in one case, and $83 million in a second defamation case. Trump has appealed both decisions to the Supreme Court.
