US Justice Department Opens Criminal Investigation Into E. Jean Carroll, Who Accused Trump Of Sexual Assault.

Washington DC; May 2026: The United States Justice Department has launched a criminal investigation into E. Jean Carroll, the former journalist who have accused President Donald Trump of sexual assault, as per official sources.

The investigation focuses on whether Carroll committed perjury in testimony related to the two civil lawsuits filed against the US President: one alleging he sexually abused Carroll in a New York store in the mid-1990s, and the second for defamation, after in 2019 he repeatedly denied the assault, said she was not his type and claimed she made it all up to boost sales of a book he had written.

Prosecutors’ theory is based on a sworn statement in 2022 by Carroll, 82, that he received no outside funding for his trial, although it was later revealed that billionaire Reid Hoffman paid some of the fees and legal costs.

“We can confirm that no US attorney’s office has declined to investigate any case related to the subject matter”, a Justice Department spokesperson told media reporters. “We will not comment further on this matter”, the official said. The investigation is the latest move in the Department’s ongoing and somewhat strained efforts to satisfy Trump’s demands to target his long time personal enemies.

Under acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, the department has pushed to accelerate Trump’s campaign of retaliation. But the cases it has initiated since he took over in April this year have been heavily criticised and are likely to face court challenges on grounds of politicisation.

However, Blanche was recused from the matter because he worked as one of Trump’s personal lawyers in the Carroll appeals, according to a source familiar with the situation. Blanche did not attend the hearings or discuss the investigations, and the investigation is being overseen by other officials in the deputy attorney general’s office.

Justice Department officials have referred the investigation to federal prosecutors in Chicago, according to two people familiar with the matter. Although Carroll’s deposition took place in New York, one of the people who helped cover some of Carroll’s legal expenses, Hoffman, has a Chicago-based non-profit.

Hoffman’s support in the case caught Trump’s lawyers by surprise when it emerged on the eve of the trial. In a videotaped deposition in 2022, Carroll told Trump’s then-lawyer, Alina Habba, that no one else was paying his legal fees. But two weeks before the trial, Carroll’s lawyers informed the judge and Trump’s lawyers that they had obtained funding from Hoffman’s non-profit organisation.

Carroll’s lawyers said she had not met or spoken to anyone associated with the non-profit. Habba told the court at the time that Carroll’s team “conspired to conceal the truth for nearly six months”.

The judge allowed Trump’s lawyers to question Carroll again in a deposition, which was not made public. When the trial began two weeks later, Judge Lewis Kaplan said he saw no problem with Carroll’s credibility and prevented lawyers from asking questions about Hoffman’s financing.

Carroll is still embroiled in multiple legal battles with the President. Juries have awarded Carroll millions of dollars in damages, which the US President is challenging. Trump has challenged the Supreme Court’s decision to pay her $5 million in the sexual assault case and has pledged to do the same in the defamation case, which is seeking $ 83 million.

The Supreme Court has postponed its decision on whether to accept Trump’s appeal twelve times, the most recent delay coming on Wednesday (27th May 2026) morning.

Team Maverick.