By Kara Scannell, Hannah Rabinowitz, CNN
(CNN) — Democratic billionaire Reid Hoffman said Friday that the Justice Department’s criminal probe involving donations he made toward E. Jean Carroll’s lawsuits is meant to “silence” those who stand up to President Donald Trump.
“He is investigating me because I supported E Jean’s lawsuit –– where a jury found Trump liable for sexually assaulting her, and a court of appeals upheld the decision,” Hoffman said of Trump in a post on X Friday. He also wrote a post on Substack addressing the Carroll probe, which he says “reaches toward” him.
“Trump thinks this fabricated investigation will do three things: silence women, concentrate his power, and try to prevent me from continuing to give financial support to his opponents (whether it be sexual assault survivors, politicians seeking office, or organizations fighting on behalf of the American People),” he wrote. “He thinks fear is contagious and courage is not. He is wrong.”
Federal prosecutors are investigating whether Carroll, the 82-year-old former magazine columnist who accused Trump of sexual assault and defamation, committed perjury in connection with her two civil lawsuits against the president.
Sources familiar with the matter tell CNN that the investigation also scrutinizes Hoffman’s nonprofit, American Future Republic, which helped fund some of Carroll’s expenses.
Federal prosecutors in Chicago, where Hoffman’s nonprofit is based, are reviewing statements that Carroll made in a deposition about that funding and whether she provided false information, according to sources familiar with the investigation.
After CNN first reported the investigation, the US attorney said the district had not opened a criminal investigation into Carroll. Multiple sources reaffirmed to CNN Carroll is a focus of the ongoing Justice Department investigation.
The latest investigation, which is in the early stages, touches on two of the people the president most loathes — megadonor Hoffman and Carroll, the only woman to take Trump to trial over civil allegations around sexual abuse and to win in court. Trump has denied assaulting Carroll and said she wasn’t his type.
Trump has made no secret of his animosity toward them both. He has repeatedly called a Carroll a liar and a “wack job” and adamantly denied ever sexually assaulting her.
In November, as pressure was building on the Justice Department to release the records related to sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, Trump said he would ask DOJ to investigate several prominent democrats who had ties to Epstein — specifically Hoffman.
Hoffman at the time called Trump’s directive “baseless.” He wrote on X, “I was never a client of Epstein’s and never had any engagement with him other than fundraising for MIT.”
Hoffman is a major donor to Democrats and supported President Joe Biden in his re-election effort in 2024 and poured millions of dollars into political committees backing Kamala Harris’ campaign after she became the Democratic nominee.
How Hoffman found the E. Jean Carroll case
The history between Hoffman and Carroll stems from his philanthropic effort to fund a broader swath of litigation that he described in 2023 as “protecting the rule of law from the threat posed by Donald Trump’s scorched-earth legal m