Justice Department Probes E. Jean Carroll for Possible Perjury

The U.S. Justice Department has opened a criminal investigation into whether author E. Jean Carroll committed perjury during her civil lawsuits against former President Donald Trump, according to sources familiar with the matter. The inquiry is being led by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Illinois.

Carroll, a former magazine writer, accused Trump of sexually assaulting her in a New York City department store dressing room in the mid-1990s. She published her account in a 2019 New York Magazine story and subsequently filed two civil lawsuits against Trump alleging sexual assault and defamation.

In 2023, a jury found Trump liable for sexual assault and defamation related to comments he made in 2022, awarding Carroll $5 million in damages. The following year, a second jury found Trump liable for defamation connected to comments he made about Carroll in 2019, resulting in an $83.3 million judgment. Both verdicts were upheld on appeal.

The perjury investigation focuses on whether Carroll lied during a 2022 deposition when she stated she had received no outside funding for her lawsuit. It later emerged that billionaire Reid Hoffman, co-founder of LinkedIn, had helped cover some of her legal expenses. Trump’s attorneys raised this issue during the trial and on appeal. However, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit ruled in 2024 that Carroll “plausibly represented” she had forgotten about the limited outside funding and was not involved in managing the funding.

Hoffman explained in a May 2023 interview with The Washington Post that he chose to support Carroll’s legal action after she had already filed her lawsuit. “My team looked at it, thought that her voice should be heard because she was challenging someone who was so much more wealthy and powerful, it shouldn’t be squashed,” he said.

Trump has consistently denied all allegations of sexual assault and has sought Supreme Court intervention in both cases. The White House referred questions about the investigation to the Justice Department. Carroll’s legal team did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, who represented Trump on some litigation, is recused from the investigation.