US Attorney Denies Perjury Probe Into E. Jean Carroll

The top federal prosecutor in Chicago denied Thursday night that his office had opened an investigation into E. Jean Carroll, the longtime advice columnist who has said President Donald Trump sexually assaulted her in a New York department store 30 years ago. The denial by Andrew Boutros, the U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Illinois, came hours after multiple news organizations reported that the Department of Justice was investigating whether she lied during the course of civil litigation against Trump. The Associated Press and other news organizations, citing anonymous sources, reported that the federal prosecutors’ office in Chicago had opened an investigation into Carroll examining possible perjury allegations. But Boutros issued a statement roughly 24 hours after the first report was published saying that his office “has not opened — and has never opened — a criminal investigation into E. Jean Carroll.” An attorney for Carroll declined to comment Thursday through a spokesperson. The DOJ investigation into Carroll was first reported by CNN on Wednesday night. Carroll has said a flirtatious, chance encounter with Trump in 1996 at Bergdorf Goodman’s Fifth Avenue store in Manhattan ended violently. She said Trump slammed her against a dressing room wall, pulled down her tights and forced himself on her. Trump has called the allegations a “made-up scam,” and he has attacked her motivations, saying they were politically driven or arose from a desire to promote her memoir. A jury in 2023 found Trump liable for sexually abusing Carroll and defaming her, and she was awarded $5 million. The following year, another jury awarded Carroll $83.3 million in a defamation case related to Trump’s social media posts about her.