E. Jean Carroll, 80, used to write a very popular advice column for Elle magazine, but she is more famous for claiming that former President Donald Trump raped her in the 1990s – something Trump denies. In fact, he says he never met her. Echoes of the Brett Kavanaugh saga? You could be forgiven for thinking that because Carroll did not make the claim until 2019 – the year before the 45th president launched his re-election campaign. She is suing for defamation because Trump denied the incident took place – thus suggesting Carroll is a liar – and because he also said the journalist is “not my type.” As it is, the suit is on shaky ground, but now it has come to light that Reid Hoffman, the billionaire founder of LinkedIn and a major Democratic Party donor, has been funding the lawsuit despite Carroll’s previous assertion that no one else was paying for the legal action.
Essentially, Carroll’s suit seems destined to fail because the federal government cannot be sued for defamation. When Trump denied the woman’s allegation, he was president. As it turns out, the Biden administration agrees. In a 2021 court filing, the Department of Justice argued that the case should be dismissed because, it noted, Trump’s comments were made “within the scope of his office or employment” as president.
Credibility Problem for E. Jean Carroll
Trump and Carroll were both deposed in October 2022. During her deposition, the columnist stated that no one was bankrolling her suit against Trump. The former president’s lawyers have been trying for quite some time to ascertain whether that is true or not. On April 13, Trump’s attorneys submitted a court filing in which they cited Carroll’s previous claim about her suit and disclosed that her legal counsel admitted, just days before, that Hoffman was putting up the money, along with the nonprofit American Future Republic – also founded by Hoffman.
E. Jean Carroll (Photo by Ilya S. Savenok/Getty Images for Glamour)
In the most recent filing, Trump attorneys Alina Habba and Joe Tacopina wrote:
“The proposition that [Carroll] has suddenly ‘recollected’ the source of her funding for this high-profile litigation – which has spanned four years, spawned two separate actions, and been before numerous state, federal, and appellate courts – is not only preposterous, it is demonstrably false. Indeed, it simply defies logic to believe that [Carroll’s] attorneys – four of whom were present at her deposition—were unaware that their own firm had ‘secured additional funding from a nonprofit organization’ to bankroll their client’s various lawsuits and ensure their bills were being paid.”
The revelation in itself will likely have no bearing on the outcome of the legal action, but it suggests that E. Jean Carroll has a credibility problem, as US District Judge Lewis Kaplan, who is handling the case, conceded. It also backs up Trump’s repeated claims that the suit is just another politically motivated attack on him. Hoffman is not only a Democrat megadonor but also particularly known for his dislike of Trump. One of Hoffman’s focuses has been an attempt to diminish Trump’s influence within the Republican Party.
Trump’s attorneys tried unsuccessfully to delay the trial for a month. It is now scheduled to begin next week in New York.
