DOJ opens criminal investigation into E. Jean Carroll and nonprofit that funded her Trump suit

On May 27, 2026, CNN first reported — with the New York Times and other outlets quickly confirming — that the U.S. Department of Justice had opened a criminal investigation involving E. Jean Carroll, the writer who won two civil judgments against President Donald Trump: a $5 million award in 2023 for sexual abuse and defamation, and roughly $83 million in 2024 for repeated defamation. The investigation is being run out of the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Northern District of Illinois, led by Trump appointee Andrew Boutros. Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, who had represented Trump personally in his appeal of the Carroll verdict, has recused himself from the matter.

According to NBC News, the probe is focused on the nonprofit — Lever for Change, funded by LinkedIn co-founder and prominent Democratic donor Reid Hoffman — that helped pay some of Carroll's legal costs, and on testimony Carroll gave about that funding. Asked in an October 2022 deposition whether anyone else was paying her legal fees, Carroll said no; in 2023 her attorneys disclosed that she had been told in 2020 that outside funding had been secured to offset some expenses. That same funding-discrepancy theory was litigated before the entry of judgment and again on appeal. The trial judge barred Trump's lawyers from questioning Carroll about it at trial, and in 2024 the Second Circuit rejected the credibility argument outright, writing that "Ms. Carroll simply was not involved in the matter of who was or was not funding her litigation costs" and that there was no indication she knew where the money came from.

The investigation fits a documented pattern of the Justice Department opening criminal inquiries into people the president has identified as adversaries — among them former FBI Director James Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James — none of which has produced a conviction. Reopening, as a criminal matter, a funding theory that has already been examined and rejected in the civil litigation, against the very plaintiff who prevailed against the sitting president, is the structural concern this entry records. Hoffman, whose nonprofit is the stated focus, has said the probe is meant to "silence" Trump's critics; Trump had publicly called on the DOJ to investigate Hoffman. Blanche's recusal acknowledges the direct conflict but does not insulate the institution from it.