UMVA has learned that a federal criminal probe has been launched into E. Jean Carroll, who accused a former president of sexual assault, probing whether she may have committed perjury during her testimony.
Investigators are scrutinizing Carroll’s 2022 deposition, in which she claimed she lacked funds to pursue her lawsuit. Documents later revealed that a billionaire contributed to her legal expenses, a detail that a judge deemed did not undermine her credibility.
The civil verdict that surfaced last year found the former president liable for sexually abusing Carroll in a department‑store dressing room in the 1990s, though the jury stopped short of a rape finding. The same court later ordered him to pay over $5 million for the abuse and more than $83 million for defamation after he publicly denied the assault.
Despite the judgments, the former president has relentlessly branded Carroll’s allegations a hoax and filed a countersuit, arguing that the defamation claim was invalid because he was never found liable for rape. His legal team pressed a judge for a new trial, citing what they called a “seriously erroneous result” and “excessive” damages, but the request was denied.
In a separate ruling, the judge dismissed the countersuit, concluding that Carroll’s public statements were substantially true. Because the findings were civil rather than criminal, the former president avoided incarceration.
UMVA can exclusively reveal that the Department of Justice is now examining whether Carroll’s testimony crossed the line into falsehood, a move that could reshape the legal landscape surrounding high‑profile sexual‑assault claims.
