The Justice Department has launched a criminal probe into a Chicago-based nonprofit backed by billionaire Reid Hoffman over its payment of legal bills of E. Jean Carroll, the advice columnist who accused President Donald Trump of sexual assault, according to two people familiar with the matter.

The investigation, which is expected to look at statements Carroll made during a deposition, could also morph into a criminal perjury probe against the 82-year-old columnist, said the people familiar with the matter, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss an ongoing probe. The nascent investigation follows years of Trump publicly deriding Carroll, his accuser, and Hoffman, a major Democratic Party donor.....

In a 2022 deposition, Carroll testified that outside funders were not helping her to bring the lawsuit. It later became public that Hoffman’s nonprofit, American Future Republic, paid some of her legal bills.

The investigation is centered on this statement and whether American Future Republic, which largely gives grants to left leaning causes, could have directed Carroll to lie during that deposition, according to the people familiar with the probe. The investigation is examining potential money laundering, conspiracy and obstruction charges, the people said......

Trump’s personal defense attorneys have previously brought up Carroll’s statement during the deposition — and how the trial judge handled the evidence around the payment of her legal fees — as a potential reason to overturn the verdict.

But a panel of federal appeals judges ruled in 2024 that it was plausible that she had simply forgotten about the funding when she testified — and had not intended to mislead the defense. According to court records, Carroll’s legal team said they would be paid on contingency, meaning her attorneys would only get paid if and when she prevailed before a jury or reached a monetary settlement.

In 2020, her defense team had informed her that they secured outside funding for some legal fees, according to the court records. Carrol said that she did not speak with her counsel again about this until 2023 and that when she testified in 2022, she had forgotten about it, according to court records.

“There was no evidence to suggest that Ms. Carroll was personally involved in securing the funding, interacted with the funder, received an invoice showing the arrangement before or after her counsel received the outside funding, or had discussed the arrangement with anyone between learning of it in September 2020 and being deposed in October 2022,” the panel of appeals court judges found.