US justice department reportedly opens criminal inquiry into Trump accuser E Jean Carroll

The Trump administration has opened a criminal investigation into E Jean Carroll, the writer who accused the president of sexual assault, according to news reports . Prosecutors, the New York Times and CNN reported on Wednesday, are looking into whether Carroll, 82, committed perjury in a 2022 deposition during her civil lawsuits against Trump, in which she said she did not accept outside financial support for her legal battles. Nearly six months later, before the trial started, Carroll’s attorneys informed the judge and Trump’s lawyers that a nonprofit funded by Reid Hoffman, the billionaire LinkedIn co-founder, had paid some legal fees and expenses. Trump’s lawyers claimed Carroll hid Hoffman’s funding and that the obfuscation undermined her credibility. Carroll’s lawyers said she never met or spoke with anyone from the nonprofit. The judge allowed Trump’s attorney, Alina Habba, to question Carroll again in a second deposition. In 2024, a three-judge federal appeals court panel in New York dismissed the claim that Carroll had lied in her deposition. Carroll, a longtime advice columnist, claimed in her 2019 book What Do We Need Men For? that Trump forced himself upon her in a New York department store’s dressing room. Trump denied the allegations, accusing her of “totally lying ” and adding that she was “not my type”. Carroll filed a federal civil lawsuit against Trump for sexual abuse and defamation. …