The U.S. Justice Department has opened a criminal investigation into whether author E. Jean Carroll committed perjury in connection with her sworn testimony about who funded her civil lawsuits.
Federal prosecutors are examining Carroll's statements under oath about third-party financial support for her litigation, including when she learned that outside groups would help pay her legal fees and how that support was described in court proceedings.
The inquiry centers on whether any of her answers about lawsuit funding were knowingly false, which could form the basis of a perjury charge. Investigators are comparing her deposition testimony with financial records and other witness accounts to determine if there are material discrepancies, according to the BBC.
The investigation is being overseen by the U.S. attorney's office in the Northern District of Illinois, based in Chicago, and remains in a preliminary phase with no charges filed. A key focus is a trust connected to Democratic donor Reid Hoffman, whose nonprofit organization helped cover some of Carroll's legal expenses in her cases against Trump.
Prosecutors are reviewing how that support was structured, who approved it, and how it was disclosed, including whether all relevant details were accurately reflected in Carroll's sworn statements.
Media outlets report that a 2022 deposition is central to the probe, when Carroll was questioned about whether any outside entities were paying her legal bills and what she understood about that assistance at the time.
People familiar with the matter have said Carroll has not been publicly designated a formal target, and the review of her testimony takes place within a broader look at the financing arrangement involving the Hoffman-linked entity.
Carroll, a longtime advice columnist and former magazine writer, became widely known in politics after she alleged that President Donald Trump sexually assaulted her in a Manhattan department store dressing room in the mid‑1990s, an allegation he has repeatedly denied, The Guardian reported.
She later brought federal civil suits against Trump, including a defamation claim over his 2019 comments attacking her credibility and another case under a New York law that temporarily extended the time limit to sue for certain sexual assaults.
Juries in two separate civil trials found Trump liable for sexually abusing Carroll and for defamation, awarding her multimillion-dollar judgments.
Officials have not announced a timeline for completing the current investigation or deciding whether to pursue criminal charges, and both the Justice Department and Carroll's legal team have so far declined public comment in recent coverage, as per NBC News.
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