The Department of Justice has opened a criminal investigation into former Elle Magazine columnist E. Jean Carroll, according to multiple reports. It comes after Carroll won a multi-million-dollar civil judgment against President Donald Trump.
One of those cases centered on Carroll’s sexual assault allegations against the president. The other involved defamation claims after Trump repeatedly denied her accusations. A jury awarded Carroll $5 million in damages.
Sources also told CNN and ABC News that Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche has recused himself from the investigation after serving as one of Trump’s personal defense attorneys in his appeal of the civil cases.
The investigation
The probe is set to focus on whether Carroll committed perjury in civil testimony during her two lawsuits against the president.
Prosecutors say that during a deposition in 2022, Carroll said she received no outside funding for her lawsuit, but it was later revealed that billionaire Reid Hoffman had paid some of her legal fees. They say that raised “significant questions” about Carroll’s credibility.
In a letter to the court, Carroll’s lawyers argued Hoffman’s financial support was irrelevant to Carroll’s legal claims and that she had nothing to do with obtaining the outside funding, The New York Times reported.
Supreme Court request
Trump asked the Supreme Court to overturn the case last November, but just last week, the justices rescheduled their review of that for the 11th time.
Trump’s lawyers argue that Carroll’s lawyers should not have been allowed to introduce testimony by other women who alleged that Trump had assaulted them, nor should they have been allowed to use the 2005 “Access Hollywood” tape in which Trump bragged about grabbing women by their genitals.
It is not clear the reason for the continued delay, but it could be related to a separate defamation case involving Carroll. Trump has indicated that he plans to ask the Supreme Court to review a ruling by a federal appeals court that upheld an $83 million verdict in Carroll’s favor. He he is also seeking to have the U.S. government take his place in the lawsuit because he was president when he made the statements at the center of the case, according to SCOTUSblog.
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