Top Chicago Federal Prosecutor Denies E. Jean Carroll Investigation, Disputes Media Reports

The AP and other news outlets, citing unnamed sources, reported that the federal prosecutor’s office in Chicago had opened an investigation.

WASHINGTON — Chicago’s top federal prosecutor denied Thursday night that his office had opened an investigation into E. Jean Carroll, the longtime columnist who said Donald Trump sexually assaulted her in a New York department store 30 years ago.

The denial came hours after several news outlets reported that the Justice Department was investigating whether she lied during the civil trial against Trump.

The Associated Press and other news outlets, citing unnamed sources, reported that the federal prosecutor’s office in Chicago had opened an investigation into Carroll looking into possible allegations of perjury. But Andrew Boutros, the U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Illinois, issued a statement about 24 hours after the first report was released, saying his office “has not opened — and has never opened — a criminal investigation into E. Jean Carroll.”

The conflicting accounts could not immediately be reconciled, and it was not immediately clear whether Boutros was denying that Carroll was the target of a Justice Department investigation or was not being investigated at all.

A person familiar with the matter, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss an ongoing investigation, initially told the AP Thursday morning that investigators were focusing on Carroll, but later clarified that the focus was on a nonprofit organization that helped fund his case.

An attorney for Carroll declined to comment Thursday through a spokesperson.

The Justice Department’s investigation into Carroll was first reported by CNN on Wednesday evening.

The investigative reports have reinforced the perception among Democrats and other former officials that a Justice Department meant to make prosecutorial decisions independent of the White House is being used as a weapon against the president’s political enemies.

Trump’s Justice Department has opened several investigations into alleged adversaries of the Republican president, including obtaining an indictment last month against former FBI Director James Comey.

Carroll said a flirtatious, chance encounter with Trump in 1996 at the Bergdorf Goodman store on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan ended in violence. She said Trump slammed her against the wall of a dressing room, pulled down her tights and forced himself on her. Trump called the allegations a “made-up scam” and attacked his motives, saying they were politically motivated or stemmed from a desire to promote his memoir.

In 2023, a jury found Trump liable for sexually abusing Carroll and defaming her, and she was awarded $5 million. The following year, another jury awarded Carroll $83.3 million in a defamation case related to Trump’s social media posts about him.

Reports this week indicated that the Justice Department was reviewing a statement Carroll made during the civil trial that no one else was paying his legal fees. It later became public that a Chicago-based organization backed by LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman had helped fund Carroll’s case.

Trump’s lawyers in the civil case accused Carroll of withholding that information, which they said called into question whether the case was politically motivated.

Several news outlets, including the Washington Post and NBC News, cited anonymous sources in reporting Thursday that the investigation was actually focused on Hoffman’s nonprofit. The AP could not immediately confirm those accounts.

A month before the first trial in 2023, Alina Habba, then Trump’s lawyer, sought to delay it, saying in court documents that new revelations about Hoffman partly funding Carroll’s case “raise significant questions about Plaintiff’s credibility, as well as her motivations for filing and/or pursuing this action.”

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, in a Dec. 30, 2024, decision upheld the jury’s $5 million award starting in 2023. The court examined Carroll’s credibility after Trump accused her of lying, during a deposition, about how her case was financed.

The court cited Carroll’s explanation that when she was first asked the question about Hoffman’s contributions in 2022, she forgot about “the limited outside funding” received in September 2020.

“This showed that Ms Carroll was simply not involved in the question of who was or was not funding her legal costs,” the appeal court said.

Hoffman defended the financial aid, saying in a social media post that “supporting women’s fight for progress and justice in philanthropy, politics and business is a long-standing priority of mine, as is supporting America against the threat of Trump.”

A statement to the court earlier this month said Trump would not have to pay the sum until the U.S. Supreme Court had a chance to review the case or reject an appeal.

The appeals court granted a request from one of Trump’s lawyers to allow Trump to delay payment to Carroll, although he was required to post a $7.4 million bond to cover possible additional interest charges, a request made by Carroll’s lawyer.

Copyright 2025 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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