Wait: Trump accuser not under DOJ investigation!

As part of the Fake News, I don't know how rumors like this get started. I'd like to think I play a small but meaningful role.

BTW: The specifics of Ms Carroll's case are denoted below (Claude AI). In effect, lacking hard specific evidence, it was her word against his, on an alleged crime that happened decades earlier. His denial of her account creates the basis of her perjury and defamation claims.

Would it surprise a reasonable human being that Voldemort did what she alleges. No. Did she prove such? I'll leave that to you to decide. In a great irony, during the trial Carroll claimed she had not received funding from any outside (politically motivated) source. That turned out to be false...perjury?

In the May 2023 civil trial (Carroll II, under New York's Adult Survivors Act), Carroll's team presented a layered case. The evidence fell into several categories:

Carroll's own testimony. She testified that she crossed paths with Trump at the revolving door of Bergdorf Goodman on a Thursday evening in spring 1996, that he asked her advice about a gift for a woman, and they went together to the lingerie department where they joked about who should try on a bodysuit. She described in graphic detail that Trump "jammed his hand up her dress, pulled down her tights and forced his penis inside her" in the dressing room, and that she kneed him and fled. NPRaol

Two "outcry witnesses." Lisa Birnbach and Carol Martin each testified that Carroll told them about the attack shortly after it occurred — Birnbach reportedly within minutes by phone, Martin within a day or two. Birnbach urged her to go to police; Martin advised against it because Trump was too powerful. Courthousenews

Two other Trump accusers (propensity evidence under FRE 415/413). Judge Kaplan permitted their testimony to show a pattern:

• Jessica Leeds testified Trump groped her and tried to kiss her on a 1979 flight.

• Natasha Stoynoff testified that in 2005, while she was profiling Trump at Mar-a-Lago for People magazine, he led her to a room ostensibly to show her a painting, shut the door, and started kissing her. She broke into tears on the stand. Law & Crime

The Access Hollywood tape. Judge Kaplan ruled jurors could see the 2005 tape, reasoning that a jury could find Trump "admitted in the Access Hollywood tape that he in fact has had contact with women's genitalia in the past without their consent, or that he has attempted to do so." aol

Trump's own video deposition. Played for the jury. The most damaging moment: when shown a photo of himself with Carroll at a party, Trump identified her as his second wife Marla Maples — "That's Marla, yeah. That's my wife" — which Carroll's lawyers used to undercut his repeated "she's not my type" defense. Trump did not testify live at the first trial. ABC News

Corroborating fact witnesses. Two former Bergdorf Goodman employees (Beall and Salerno) testified about the store's layout and lingerie department in the 1990s, consistent with Carroll's account. Her sister Cande testified about Carroll's character and background.

Expert testimony. Clinical psychologist Dr. Leslie Lebowitz testified about trauma responses — addressing why a sexual assault victim might delay reporting for decades and behave the way Carroll did.

The photograph. A 1987 black-tie party photo showing Trump, Ivana, Carroll, and Carroll's then-husband John Johnson chatting and laughing — used to rebut Trump's denial of ever knowing her.

One important legal nuance: the jury found Trump liable for "sexual abuse" and defamation but did not check the box for "rape" under New York's narrow penal-law definition (which at the time required penile penetration that the jury wasn't unanimously persuaded had been proven versus digital penetration). Judge Kaplan subsequently clarified in a written opinion that what the jury found Trump did to Carroll "was in fact rape, as commonly understood, even if it didn't fit New York law's narrow definition." The jury awarded $5 million; a separate 2024 trial added $83.3 million in defamation damages. The Second Circuit affirmed the verdict in December 2024. The Washington Post

Trump sex abuse accuser E. Jean Carroll not under DOJ investigation: Chicago US attorney

By Victor Nava, NY Post

Published May 28, 2026

The top federal prosecutor in Chicago vehemently denied reports Thursday that a probe into longtime advice columnist E. Jean Carroll had been launched.

The denial by US Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois Andrew Boutros came after multiple outlets claimed the Justice Department was investigating whether Carroll committed perjury in testimony related to her two civil lawsuits against President Trump.

“In light of wide-spread reporting and intense media and public interest into the E. Jean Carroll matter in New York, the Chicago U.S. Attorney’s Office can confirm that it has not opened — and has never opened — a criminal investigation into E. Jean Carroll,” read a statement from the US attorneys office attributed to Boutros.

E. Jean Carroll arriving to court in Manhattan on May 9, 2023.

“Any claim to the contrary is categorically false,” the prosecutor added.

CNN reported that investigators were examining Carroll’s claim during a 2022 deposition that neither of her lawsuits were funded by outside sources, though Reid Hoffman, the billionaire co-founder of LinkedIn and a Democratic megadonor, was later revealed to have paid some legal fees and expenses through his Chicago-based nonprofit American Future Republic.

Carroll, now 82, was initially awarded $5 million in May 2023 after a Manhattan federal jury found the president liable for sexual abuse and defamation. The columnist had claimed Trump raped her in a Bergdorf Goodman fitting room during the spring of 1996 and then defamed her by denying her claim, saying she wasn’t his type and claiming she had made the whole thing up to boost book sales.

In response to Trump’s continued sniping, Carroll filed a second defamation lawsuit, which ended in a jury ordering Trump in January 2024 to shell out $83.3 million in damages, including $65 million in punitive damages, $11 million to help Carroll rebuild her reputation and another $7.3 million to compensate her for her pain and suffering.

The president has continued to deny even meeting Carroll and has appealed the initial $5 million sex abuse judgment to the Supreme Court, while pledging to do the same with the $83.3 million award.