Trump’s DOJ launches criminal probe into former New York magazine writer who accused him of sexual assault

The Department of Justice has reportedly launched a criminal investigation into former New York magazine writer E Jean Carroll, who accused President Donald Trump of sexual assault.

The investigation is believed to focus on whether Carroll, 82, committed perjury in her civil lawsuit against Trump, who she claims sexually harassed and defamed her. The New York Times reportedquoting someone with direct knowledge of the situation.

Prosecutors are particularly examining a statement he gave in 2022 in which he claimed he had not received outside funding for his case – but it was later revealed that billionaire Reid Hoffman had paid some of the legal fees and costs. According to CNN.

Trump-appointed U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois, Andrew S Boutros, initiated the investigation because Hoffman owns a Chicago-based nonprofit, sources said.

Meanwhile, Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche is said to have recused himself from the investigation due to his representation of Trump in the Carroll case, in which he won a $5 million civil lawsuit against the president in May 2023.

A federal jury in New York found Trump responsible for sexually assaulting Carroll in a Bergdorf Goodman dressing room in the mid-1990s. The jury also found that Trump slandered himself on social media, saying his case was a hoax and a lie.

Trump has since asked the Supreme Court to overturn the decision and vowed to do the same for the $83 million defamation lawsuit Carroll won against him.

President Trump was found responsible in May 2023 for sexually assaulting Carroll in a Bergdorf Goodman dressing room in the mid-1990s.

In his 2022 videotaped deposition, Carroll told then-Trump attorney Alina Habba that no one else paid his legal fees.

But just two weeks before the trial was to begin, Carroll’s lawyers informed the judge and Trump’s lawyers that they had received funding from Hoffman’s nonprofit, even though they insisted that the author had not met or had any meetings with anyone from the organization.

After hearing the confession, Habba argued in court that Carroll’s legal team ‘conspired to conceal the truth for approximately six months’ about who was funding his case.

Judge Lewis Kaplan then allowed Trump’s lawyers to question Carroll once again in a deposition not made public.

When the trial began two weeks later, Kaplan said he saw no problem with Carroll’s credibility and blocked Trump’s lawyers from asking questions about Hoffman’s financing of the trial.

Billionaire Reid Hoffman (pictured last year) paid some of Carroll’s legal fees and expenses

Carroll claimed that she and Trump met at the Bergdorf Goodman store and flirted while shopping.

But later in the locker room, Carroll said Trump slammed her against the wall, pulled down her tights and put pressure on her.

The claim appeared for the first time New York Magazine in June 2019While Trump is running for a second term in office.

Trump denied that this encounter took place.

‘I say this with great respect: First, he’s not my type. Second of all, this never happened,” Trump said in an interview days after Carroll’s accusation was first published.

However, in an October 2022 deposition, he was shown an image of Carroll after Trump left office and mistakenly identified her as his second wife, Marla Maples, even though his first wife, Ivana Trump, was also in the frame.

‘This is Marla, yes. “She’s my wife,” the then-former president said.

Trump is also in the photo, which Carroll presents as evidence that the two were acquainted, but the president denied this.

Carroll claimed that Trump slammed her against the wall, pulled down her tights and put pressure on her.

Trump has repeatedly denied that the interaction took place

Rejecting the allegations, Trump said that the columnist was a ‘liar’ and ‘mentally ill’ and that he made up the rape allegation to get rich.

However, in an interview with the Daily Mail, Carroll said money was not important to him.

‘Money is not important to me. Personally, I couldn’t care less about this, so I’ll give the money to everything Trump hates, like women’s rights.

‘My goal is to piss off Donald Trump by giving his money, his hard-earned money, to things he hates.’

Trump later also claimed that he had presidential immunity in the case; The courts rejected this claim, requiring him to pay the money.

Following the courtroom drama, Carroll published a memoir that used Trump’s words about her under the title “Not My Type: A Woman vs. President.”

The Daily Mail has reached out to Hoffman and Justice Department spokesman Carroll for comment.