WASHINGTON, May 28 (Reuters) – The top federal prosecutor in Chicago denied on Thursday that his office has launched a criminal investigation into E. Jean Carroll, the writer who accused U.S. President Donald Trump of raping her in the mid-1990s.
A person familiar with the matter told Reuters on Wednesday that the Justice Department had begun an investigation, led by the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Chicago, into whether Carroll committed perjury in testimony involving two civil lawsuits that she won against Trump.
“The Chicago U.S. Attorney’s Office can confirm that it has not opened – and has never opened – a criminal investigation into E. Jean Carroll,” U.S. Attorney Andrew Boutros said in a statement.
Carroll’s lawyer, Robbie Kaplan, did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The source, who requested anonymity to discuss an ongoing investigation, said the probe involved testimony in Carroll’s successful cases, decided in 2023 and 2024, alleging Trump sexually abused her in a New York department store and defamed her by saying she was lying.
The launch of a probe may not necessarily result in charges being brought against Carroll.
CNN first reported the investigation.
Since last year, Trump’s Justice Department has pursued a slew of investigations against the president’s antagonists and has brought criminal charges in some cases.
The source said the prosecutors’ move is based on a 2022 deposition statement by the former Elle magazine columnist that she received no outside funding for her lawsuit. Her lawyers later revealed that Reid Hoffman, the billionaire co-founder of LinkedIn, had paid some of her legal bills.
An appeals court, however, decided in 2024 that “Ms. Carroll plausibly represented that she had forgotten about the limited outside funding counsel obtained in September 2020 when this question was first posed to her in 2022, and the additional discovery did not indicate otherwise.”
A jury found in May 2023 that Trump had sexually assaulted Carroll, and defamed her by lying, but did not rape her. Another jury in January 2024 found that he had defamed her and ordered him to pay $83.3 million in damages.
Trump has denied all wrongdoing and is still in legal battles with Carroll.
Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, who has moved quickly to carry out Trump’s demands since taking over from his predecessor Pam Bondi, has been recused from the department’s investigation as he worked as one of Trump’s personal attorneys on the Carroll appeals, the source added.
(Reporting by Andrew Goudsward; Editing by William Mallard)
Copyright 2026 Thomson Reuters.