The investigation, being run out of the US Attorney’s Office in Chicago, is focused on potential money laundering and obstruction associated with the group, American Future Republic, according to the source.
The group covered some of Carroll’s legal bills in successful lawsuits accusing Trump of sexual abuse and defamation.
The source said the investigation was examining whether Carroll had committed perjury regarding the funding of her suit in a 2022 deposition. But the person said that while the probe is examining that funding, Carroll is not a focus of the investigation.
Hoffman, a prominent donor to the Democratic Party and co-founder of LinkedIn, responded on Friday that “Trump’s newest accusation of me is absurdly false.” Posting on X, he said, “Trump hopes that these fraudulent investigations will silence those who stand up to him. He is wrong. I will not bend the knee.”
A spokesperson for US 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.
It was not immediately clear what evidence prosecutors had against the group. Funding of lawsuits by outside groups is common in the United States and not generally considered illegal.
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 US$83.3 million in damages.
Trump has denied all wrongdoing and is still in legal battles with Carroll. (Reuters)
