Trump deepens retribution campaign with criminal inquiry into journalist who won cases against him for sexual abuse and defamation

The Department of Justice reportedly opened a criminal investigation into journalist E. Jean Carroll, who accused Donald Trump of sexual abuse and later won damages in two civil cases. The investigation aims to determine whether Carroll committed perjury in the civil suits she filed. Carroll, now 82, brought a sexual abuse claim related to an alleged incident in the mid-1990s at Bergdorf Goodman and later sued for defamation after Trump denied the allegations and attacked her credibility. A federal court previously ordered Trump to pay $5 million, and a later ruling increased damages to $83.3 million. Trump criticized the verdicts and said he would appeal, framing the actions as politically motivated retaliation.

"The Department of Justice has reportedly opened a criminal investigation into E. Jean Carroll, the journalist who first accused Trump of sexual abusing her in a department store dressing room and who later won a case ordering the president to also pay her $83 million for defamation (he had called her, among other things, mentally ill). The investigation launched by the Department of Justice seeks to determine whether Carroll, who is now 82, committed perjury in the civil suits she filed against Trump, in a story first reported by CNN and followed up on by The New York Times and ABC News among others."

"The former magazine writer filed two suits against Trump: the first over an alleged case of sexual abuse in the mid-1990s in a Bergdorf Goodman fitting room in Manhattan. The second was for defamation, after Trump repeatedly said that she had fabricated the assault, that she wasn't his type and that she had made it up to boost sales of her book. In 2023 a federal court ruled in Carroll's favor, ordering Trump to pay her $5 million in damages."

"But a year later the award rose substantially, after another court ordered Trump, who by then was a candidate in the presidential election, to pay jer $83.3 million in damages because he had destroyed her reputation as a journalist by denying what she had reported. Trump reacted angrily. Absolutely ridiculous! I fully disagree with both verdicts, and will be appealing this whole Biden Directed Witch Hunt focused on me and the Republican Party, he wrote on his Truth Social network."

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