The Justice Department opened a criminal investigation into testimony connected to E. Jean Carroll’s civil lawsuits against President Trump — the cases that resulted in two jury verdicts and $88 million in damages against him.
Investigators are examining possible money laundering, obstruction and conspiracy tied to a nonprofit run by Democratic billionaire Reid Hoffman that helped secretly fund Carroll’s legal costs — while Carroll had testified under oath that she received no outside funding for her lawsuit. Carroll’s own lawyers responded by saying she was not involved in who funded her litigation and called any suggestion to the contrary categorically false. She won in court twice. The investigation just opened a door nobody expected — and nobody knows yet where it leads.