The top federal prosecutor in Chicago denied on May 28 opening a criminal investigation into E. Jean Carroll, the writer who accused President Donald Trump of sexual assault and sued him for defamation.

“In light of wide-spread reporting and intense media and public interest into the E. Jean Carroll matter in New York, the Chicago U.S. Attorney’s Office can confirm that it has not opened—and has never opened—a criminal investigation into E. Jean Carroll,” Andrew Boutros, the U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois, said in a statement posted on X by his office. “Any claim to the contrary is categorically false.”

The investigation, first reported by CNN, was allegedly set to center on whether Carroll committed perjury in 2022 when she testified that her lawsuits received no outside funding.

Her attorneys later disclosed that Reid Hoffmann, founder of LinkedIn, had covered some of her legal expenses. CNN reported that the Justice Department had referred the investigation to Boutros’s office.

CNN reported that senior leaders at the Justice Department referred the purported investigation to federal prosecutors in Chicago.  

Citing a source familiar with the matter, the outlet said acting Attorney General Todd Blanche recused himself from the investigation, as he was Trump’s personal attorney and represented him during Carroll’s suit.

The Justice Department told The Epoch Times that it does not comment on investigations. 

The Epoch Times also reached out to Carroll’s attorney, Robbie Kaplan, for comment.

Carroll, a former advice columnist for Elle magazine, authored a book detailing the alleged sexual assault, which she said took place in a Bergdorf Goodman department store in 1996.

Trump responded to the accusation, saying he’d never met Carroll.

“Number one, she’s not my type. Number two, it never happened,” he said in a 2019 interview with The Hill.

Carroll then sued Trump in November 2019, accusing him of defamation.

Then in 2022, New York enacted the Adult Survivors Act, which gave victims of sexual assault one year—between November 2022 and November 2023—to bring cases even if the statute of limitations had expired. 

That allowed Carroll to file another lawsuit for the alleged assault, along with a defamation claim for comments Trump made in October 2022 accusing her of lying.

A jury in March 2023 awarded her $5 million for the sexual assault suit. In January 2024, another jury ordered Trump to pay Carroll $83.3 million in damages for the previous defamation suit.

Trump has taken multiple countermeasures against Carroll’s suits and the subsequent multi-million dollar payouts. He previously moved for a mistrial, alleging that she had failed to preserve emails and social media posts that purportedly contained death threats against her.

He also appealed the $5 million verdict to the Supreme Court in November 2025, which is yet to issue a ruling.

Earlier this month, the Justice Department said it would petition the Supreme Court to substitute the government for Trump as defendant in the suit under the Westfall Act. 

That law lets the federal government step in as a defendant to shield federal employees from some lawsuits arising from their government employment. The Justice Department argues that Trump was acting in his capacity as president in 2019 when he made the comments that led to Carroll’s first suit.

The Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit declined to rehear the case with a full panel of judges in April, but it has paused payment of the $83 million until the Supreme Court reviews the case.

Matthew Vadum and Reuters contributed to this report.