The Justice Department has opened a criminal investigation into a nonprofit run by billionaire Reid Hoffman that helped pay for author E. Jean Carroll's civil litigation against President Trump, according to CBS News, which cited several sources familiar with the matter.
The investigation is being led by the U.S. Attorney's Office in Chicago and is examining possible crimes including money laundering, conspiracy, and obstruction. The nonprofit at the center of the probe is called American Future Republic. Hoffman, the co-founder of LinkedIn, could not be immediately reached for comment.
The investigation went through a significant shift in how it was publicly described within a 24-hour period. On Wednesday evening, sources told CBS News the probe was focused on whether Carroll had committed perjury during a deposition in one of her civil lawsuits against Trump, specifically over a claim that she had received no outside funding. It was later revealed that Hoffman had helped pay for some of her legal expenses.
By Thursday, however, a source followed up with CBS News to say Carroll is not the target of the investigation. The probe is now described as focused on the American Future Republic and the funding it provided to Carroll's legal team. One source added that while the perjury allegations against Carroll were part of the original referral the U.S. Attorney's Office received earlier this year, prosecutors are not pursuing that line of inquiry at this time.
Thursday evening, Andrew Boutros, the U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Illinois, issued a statement on X: "In light of wide-spread reporting and intense media and public interest into the E. Jean Carroll matter in New York, 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. Any claim to the contrary is categorically false."
Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, who represented Trump in some of the related litigation, is recused from the case, according to one source. Roberta Kaplan, the attorney who represented Carroll in both civil lawsuits, declined to comment.
Carroll accused Trump of sexually assaulting her in a New York City department store dressing room in the mid-1990s. She published an account of the encounter in New York Magazine in 2019 and later filed a defamation lawsuit that year, though it stalled in court. In 2022, she filed a second lawsuit adding a rape claim under New York's Adult Survivors Act.
In 2023, a jury found Trump liable for sexual abuse and defamation, awarding Carroll $5 million in damages. A second jury in 2024 found him liable for defamation related to comments he made in 2019 and awarded her $83.3 million. Both judgments were upheld on appeal. Trump has repeatedly denied the sexual assault allegations.
