U.S. Department of Justice Opens Criminal Probe Into E. Jean Carroll Perjury, Possible Money Laundering

The U.S. Department of Justice has opened a criminal investigation into E. Jean Carroll’s lawsuits over her sexual abuse allegations against President Donald Trump, according to two sources familiar with the matter.

“DOJ launches criminal probe into E”

ABC News

NBC News reported that the probe is focused on a trust founded by billionaire Democratic donor Reid Hoffman, whose nonprofit helped pay some of Carroll’s legal costs, and that the crimes under investigation are possible money laundering, obstruction, and conspiracy.

ABC News

The BBC said the investigation is looking into whether Carroll committed perjury in connection with civil cases she brought against Trump, and it reported that the DOJ declined to comment.

The investigation is being run out of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Illinois, according to NBC News, and the BBC reported that Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche is recused from the case.

NBC News also said Carroll was awarded $5 million in damages in 2023 by a jury that found Trump liable for sexually abusing her, and that a following year she won an $83 million civil judgment in a defamation case.

The theory of the case hinges on whether Carroll lied when she said in a 2022 deposition that she received no outside funding for her lawsuit, a source told CBS News.

CBS News reported that it was later revealed that billionaire Reid Hoffman, co-founder of LinkedIn, helped pay for some of her legal expenses, and it said Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche is recused from the case.

BBC

The BBC described how legal papers first filed by Trump’s lawyers in 2023 revealed Hoffman had helped pay for some of Carroll’s legal fees and expenses, and it said the issue was brought up on appeal.

The BBC quoted a 2024 appeals ruling that Carroll had "plausibly represented" in her deposition "that she had forgotten about the limited outside funding counsel obtained".

NBC News added that in an October 2022 deposition Carroll said she was not paying legal fees herself and that "this is a contingency case," meaning her attorneys would only get paid if the lawsuit was successful.

Trump has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing and said he didn’t even know Carroll, and the BBC reported that he has asked the Supreme Court to overturn the first of the judgments.

“Disons-le d’emblée: peu de gens croient à l’innocence totale de Donald Trump”

Blick

Forbes said the Supreme Court is poised to rule on whether it considers Trump’s appeal of the two verdicts against him, and it reported that Trump is running out of options to avoid paying nearly $100 million in damages.

Forbes reported a big number of $98.5 million owed to Carroll in the two cases combined as interest has accrued, including $5.8 million now owed in the first case and $92.7 million in the second.

The AP reported that the perjury investigation is being led by the federal prosecutors' office in Chicago, and it said acting Attorney General Todd Blanche has had no involvement because of his prior work as Trump's personal attorney.

The BBC also said the investigation does not necessarily mean the DOJ will indict, charge, or arrest Carroll, and it quoted Dmitriy Shakhnevich saying it was still "rare" for the federal government "to prosecute an isolated perjury charge arising out of a civil case".