A MARTÍNEZ, HOST:
The Justice Department has opened another investigation that involves perceived political adversaries of President Trump.
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
This new probe centers around the writer E. Jean Carroll, who won two lawsuits against the president for sexual abuse and defamation.
MARTÍNEZ: NPR Justice correspondent Ryan Lucas is here. So what can you tell us about the investigation, Ryan?
RYAN LUCAS, BYLINE: Well, the investigation is being handled by the U.S. attorney's office in the Northern District of Illinois, and it stems from a lawsuit that E. Jean Carroll filed and won against Trump. A source familiar with the matter tells me the focus of the investigation right now is a nonprofit - American Future Republic - and funding that it provided to pay for some of Carroll's legal expenses.
Now, the nonprofit is backed by Reid Hoffman. Hoffman is a billionaire co-founder of LinkedIn. He's a major donor to Democratic causes. I'm told that investigators are looking into potential money laundering and obstruction, but there's some conflicting information on whether Carroll herself is currently under investigation. The U.S. attorney's office in Chicago put out a statement last night saying media reports that it had opened an investigation into Carroll were false. But one source tells me prosecutors are examining whether Carroll committed perjury, while another says Carroll is not currently under investigation but certainly could be as the probe moves forward. Neither Carroll nor her attorney provided comment, and Hoffman couldn't be reached for comment.
MARTÍNEZ: And all this has to do with a deposition that Carroll gave in one of her lawsuits against Trump.
LUCAS: That's right - a deposition in 2022. Trump accused Carroll of lying in that deposition about who was paying some of her legal fees. Carroll said no outside folks were chipping in to help out with the bills. It later came out that Hoffman's nonprofit was helping out. An appeals court later looked at that very issue after Trump challenged the verdict in the lawsuit, and the court found that there was no evidence to suggest that Carroll personally secured the outside funding. And it said that Carroll had plausibly forgotten about the funding, and evidence showed she, quote, was simply "not involved in the matter of who was or was not funding her litigation costs." That's what a three-judge appeals court panel found. Trump, for his part, has consistently denied Carroll's claims and called the trials a witch hunt.
MARTÍNEZ: So, Ryan, how does this investigation fit the pattern you've seen in President Trump's second term?
LUCAS: Well, look. President Trump repeatedly said on the campaign trail that if he won, he would seek vengeance on his perceived political enemies. And the Justice Department in his second term has repeatedly gone after Trump's critics and political adversaries.
Former FBI Director James Comey has been indicted twice by this Justice Department, most recently for allegedly threatening Trump by posting a photo of seashells on social media. New York State Attorney General Letitia James, a Democrat, was indicted on financial charges last fall. The Southern Poverty Law Center, a long-time target of conservatives, was recently charged with misleading donors for paying informants to infiltrate hate groups. And now we have this investigation involving a major Democratic donor, who Trump has called out publicly, and then E. Jean Carroll, who has been a very outspoken critic of Trump and who won huge financial settlements against him in court totaling nearly $90 million.
MARTÍNEZ: Yeah. How successful has DOJ been with these cases?
LUCAS: Well, the Justice Department has flamed out repeatedly with these cases against Trump's critics. The first prosecutions against Comey and James were tossed out by a court after a judge found that the prosecutor who had secured the indictments was unlawfully appointed. We have seen grand juries reject the Justice Department's attempt to indict Democratic lawmakers over a video they put out urging military members to refuse illegal orders. But even though the department has struggled, these investigations, these prosecutions do impose real costs, real pain on those who are targeted, even when the cases fizzle.
MARTÍNEZ: That's NPR's Ryan Lucas. Ryan, thanks for laying this out for us.
LUCAS: Thank you. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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