CNN Legal Experts Hammer Trump Over Campaign of ‘Vengeance’ and ‘Retribution’ Against Rape Accuser E. Jean Carroll

CNN legal experts Elie Honig and Paula Reid hammered President Donald Trump over the Justice Department probe into E. Jean Carroll, calling out his campaign of “retribution” and “vengeance” against the woman who accused him of rape and was awarded damages for sexual abuse.

Trump was found liable for sexual abuse and defamation against Carroll in a case that saw Judge Lewis Kaplan write in one motion that, “The finding that Ms. Carroll failed to prove that she was ‘raped’ within the meaning of the New York Penal Law does not mean that she failed to prove that Mr. Trump ‘raped’ her as many people commonly understand the word ‘rape.’ Indeed, as the evidence at trial recounted below makes clear, the jury found that Mr. Trump in fact did exactly that.”

Judgments of $5 million and $83 million have been upheld in court, but Trump is still pursuing appeals.

CNN dropped a bombshell report on Wednesday that the Trump DOJ is investigating Carroll for possible perjury charges over a 2022 deposition a 2022 deposition in which she said outside backers did not fund her lawsuit.

Carroll’s lawyers later told a judge that billionaire Reid Hoffman paid some of her legal fees and expenses.

On Wednesday night’s edition of CNN’s The Source with Kaitlan Collins, guest anchor Brianna Keilar hosted both legal experts, and all three of them called out Trump’s open hostility toward Carroll, which could result in a vindictive prosecution defense:

BRIANNA KEILAR: The Trump revenge and retribution tour has taken yet another relentless turn. This time, sources say, the Justice Department has launched a criminal investigation into E. Jean Carroll, the former magazine columnist who accused Donald Trump of sexual assault, dating back to the 1990s.

Carroll took Trump to civil court during his first term as president and won a $5 million judgment against him, after the jury concluded that he sexually abused her.

In a second trial, a jury awarded Carroll, $83 million, after finding that Trump defamed her when, in 2019 he repeatedly denied the assault, said she wasn’t his type, and claimed that she made it up to boost sales of a book. The President continues to appeal that verdict.

Let’s bring in Paula Reid to talk a little bit about this.

Paula, this is exclusive reporting. What are sources telling you about this?

PAULA REID: So, sources tell our colleagues, Kara Scannell, Hannah Rabinowitz, and I, that the theory of this case is that she may have perjured herself during her two civil cases against President Trump.

Now, they’re specifically looking at a 2022 deposition where Carroll said that she had not received any outside funding. But her lawyers subsequently informed the court that she had received outside funding from billionaire Reid Hoffman to help with legal fees and expenses.

Now, ahead of the trial, the judge said that he didn’t see any problem with her credibility and actually blocked Trump lawyers from asking about this funding.

Now, as we understand, this is still in the early stages. It’s unclear, though, if anything will actually come of this investigation. Because this has to be seen, of course, in the context of this larger effort to use the Justice Department to pursue President Trump’s political adversaries, and that’s been met with mixed results.

KEILAR: Let’s play some of what President Trump has said about E. Jean Carroll over the years. Here it is.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT, UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: I don’t even know who this woman is. I have no idea who she is, where she came from. This is another scam. It’s a political witch-hunt.

This is all political stuff, including the women’s stuff. The Bergdorf Goodman. I meet a woman outside of Bergdorf Goodman, I took her upstairs to a changing booth. It was all made-up. And you know who’s financing it? Reid Hoffman, their number one political donor. Reid Hoffman. Big fat slob.

It’s a made-up, fabricated story by somebody, I think, initially just looking to promote a book.

I should be suing her for defamation.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: What does that context tell us about this?

REID: It reminds us how personal this is for him, and this is not something that he has forgotten about. He continues to litigate against a lot of these judgments. So, if you are at the Justice Department or within the administration, E. Jean Carroll is going to be someone on his shortlist of people that he has vowed. He’s been very public. He wants to engage in a campaign of retribution, now that he is back in power.

Well, I was surprised in the course of this reporting to learn that this had been referred, that they were actively working on this. When you think of it in the larger context of what he promised he would do, it’s actually not that surprising.

KEILAR: Yes, maybe not.

All right. CNN’s Senior Legal Analyst, Elie Honig, is also here with us.

The theory, Elie, is based on a 2022 deposition statement by Carroll that she received no outside funding for her lawsuit, as Paula laid out there. But it was later revealed that Reid Hoffman, the billionaire, did pay some legal expenses.

Do you think that’s worthy of a criminal investigation?

ELIE HONIG: Well, Brianna, perjury cases are notoriously tricky. DOJ has and does charge perjury cases. I’ll give you some examples. Michael Flynn charged with perjury. Roger Stone charged with perjury. Paul Manafort charged with perjury.

Now, all that said, you cannot ignore the context here, which you just laid out with Paula, which is Donald Trump has shown throughout his time back in office, his second term, that his DOJ will go after anybody who has crossed him.

And he’s made no secret of the fact that he wants vengeance against E. Jean Carroll. And that’s more than just political atmospherics, Brianna. That’s going to eventually give E. Jean Carroll, if, big if, but if there is a criminal charge here, she will make a vindictive prosecution defense. Same thing that Jim Comey was going to make, and surely will make with his new — with his new indictment. Same thing that Letitia James made. Now the case was dismissed on other grounds. Same basis for the dismissal of the indictment against Kilmar Abrego Garcia last week.

So, the political background here can absolutely become legally relevant.

Watch above via CNN’s The Source with Kaitlan Collins.

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