Widespread reporting on Thursday that the Department of Justice was investigating Trump accuser E. Jean Carroll is being denied Friday by the U.S. Attorney out of Chicago. File Photo by John Angelillo/UPI | License Photo
May 29 (UPI) -- Reports that the U.S. Attorney's Office in Chicago is investigating President Donald Trump accuser E. Jean Carroll are denied by that office, one day after widespread reporting by multiple news outlets.
"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. Any claim to the contrary is categorically false," U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois Andrew S. Boutros posted a statement on X.
CNN broke the news Thursday, citing multiple sources familiar with the matter, and other news outlets confirmed with their sources. They reported that Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche had recused himself from the investigation because he had represented President Donald Trump in one of his appeals of a civil case brought by Carroll.
Carroll won two civil suits against Trump. One alleged that he sexually assaulted her in a New York department store in the 1990s and another one was for defamation in 2019, after he denied the assault and said she made up the attack to boost book sales. In the assault case, Carroll was awarded $5 million, and in the defamation case, she was awarded $83 million.
