By Andrew Goudsward
WASHINGTON, May 28 (Reuters) – The U.S. Justice Department has opened an investigation into a group tied to billionaire Reid Hoffman over its partial funding of writer E. Jean Carroll’s lawsuits against President Donald Trump, a person familiar with the matter said on Thursday.
The investigation, being run out of the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Chicago, is focused on potential money laundering and obstruction associated with the group, American Future Republic, according to the source, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss an ongoing investigation.
The group covered some of Carroll’s legal bills in successful lawsuits accusing Trump of sexual abuse and defamation.
The source had told Reuters on Wednesday that the investigation was examining whether Carroll had committed perjury regarding the funding of her suit in a 2022 deposition. But the person said on Thursday that while the probe is examining that funding, Carroll is not a focus of the investigation.
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It was not immediately clear what evidence prosecutors had against the group. Funding of lawsuits by outside groups is common in the U.S. and not generally considered illegal.
A spokesperson for U.S. Attorney Andrew Boutros in Chicago did not immediately respond to a request for comment on whether the probe is examining Hoffman’s group. Earlier on Thursday, the office said in a statement that it had not opened a criminal investigation of Carroll.
American Future Republic could not immediately be reached for comment. A spokesperson for Hoffman’s venture capital firm, Greylock Partners, did not immediately respond after regular business hours. Hoffman, a prominent donor to the Democratic Party, is a co-founder of LinkedIn.
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.
Carroll brought two successful lawsuits, decided in 2023 and 2024, alleging Trump sexually abused her in a New York department store in the 1990s and later defamed her by saying she was lying about the matter.
An appeals court in 2024 addressed the issue of potential perjury by the writer, deciding 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 but did not rape her under the New York definition of the crime. Another jury in January 2024 found that he had defamed her, ordering 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 said.
(Reporting by Andrew Goudsward; Editing by William Mallard)
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