The Justice Department has opened a criminal investigation into E Jean Caroll, the former magazine columnist who accused Donald Trump of sexual assault, according to reports.
The DOJ investigation will focus on whether Carroll committed perjury in her civil lawsuits against the president.
The former Elle magazine writer was awarded $5 million in 2022 after a jury found Trump liable for sexual abuse, and a separate grand jury awarded her $83.3 million for the president’s defamatory statements about her and the case.
Earlier this month, a federal appeals court rejected Trump’s attempts to rehear his arguments against Carroll, who has accused the president of repeatedly defaming her.
The Department of Justice then announced plans to intervene — and istepped in on the president’s behalf in his appeal to the Supreme Court.
Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche has recused himself from the current investigation as he represented Trump as his personal lawyer in the case, sources told ABC News.
The investigation, which was first reported by CNN, is being led by US Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois, Andrew Boutros.
Carroll’s team declined to comment to CNN. A Justice Department spokesperson declined to comment on the investigation to ABC News.
The writer brought two lawsuits against Trump, one alleging he sexually abused her in a New York department store in the 1990s.
She also brought a second defamation lawsuit against Trump for his 2019 denials of the alleged assault, in which he claimed she was not his type and alleged she had made u the claim for book sales.
Federal prosecutors are looking at a 2022 videotaped deposition statement in which Carroll said that she did not get any outside funding for her lawsuit against Trump. It was later made public that billionaire Reid Hoffman had covered some of Carroll’s expenses and legal fees.
