A Manhattan federal judge on Thursday allowed attorneys of former President Donald Trump to depose, for questions related to witness credibility, E. Jean Carroll, a writer who accused Trump of sexual assault and defamation.
It came after Trump’s attorneys learned days ago that—contrary to Carroll’s sworn statements in an Oct. 14, 2022, deposition that no one else is paying her legal fees—prominent Democrat donor, LinkedIn Founder Reid Hoffman, is funding at least some of her legal fees.
This apparent inconsistency “might prove relevant to the question of plaintiffs credibility, in view of the deposition testimony” of Carroll, the judge wrote in his Thursday order.
The lawsuit dated to 2019, when Carroll accused Trump of sexually assaulting her in the mid-1990s.
Trump has denied all of Carroll’s allegations.
Inconsistent Statements
In an Oct. 14, 2022, deposition, Carroll said under oath that her legal fees are paid on contingency—meaning that the payment will be contingent upon the case’s success and confirmed that no one else was paying her legal fees.This funding, Carroll’s attorney Roberta Kaplan wrote in an April 13 response to Trump’s letter, was obtained from “a nonprofit to help pay certain costs and fees in connection with the firm’s work on Carroll’s behalf.”
The said non-profit was the Democrat-aligned 501(c)(4) nonprofit American Future Republic, the two parties’ April 13 filings indicate.
Trump’s lawyers say the “primary backer” of this nonprofit is Hoffman, the billionaire founder of LinkedIn. Carroll’s attorneys did not dispute this claim and cited Hoffman’s name in their response letter on April 13.
Influence Watch, the Capital Research Center’s policy influence watchdog website, states that Hoffman is the “primary funder” of American Future Republic and characterizes the nonprofit as “left-of-center.” The website says the nonprofit had a revenue of over $21.9 million in 2019.
The inconsistency in Carroll’s statements affects the merit of the case, Trump’s attorneys allege in their April 13 letter, considering that Hoffman is openly anti-Trump and might have funded Carroll’s legal fees “for the purpose of pushing a political agenda.”
“[Carroll’s] potential political ties are pertinent to her motivation for filing her lawsuits, her potential bias against Defendant, and her credibility as a witness,” they added.
“Carroll is not a wealthy person,” Kaplan said. “Trump, by contrast, claims to be a billionaire who has reportedly used his own [Political Action Committee] funding to pay for his personal attorneys.”
“We informed Trump’s counsel that Carroll has never met and has never been party to any communications (written or oral) with anyone associated with the nonprofit,” Kaplan added, rejecting Trump’s attorneys’ claim that the funding has to do with the merit of the case.
Kaplan also alleged that Trump’s Thursday request to depose Carroll was a delay tactic.
In its Thursday ruling, the court partially endorsed the position of Trump’s attorneys. It ordered Carroll’s attorney to send Trump’s attorneys documents related to Carroll’s knowledge of the source of her legal funds in the case and allowed Trump’s proposed deposition of Carroll to take place no later than April 19 limited to an hour in length.
The court rejected Trump’s lawyer’s position that the source of Carroll’s funding relates to the case’s merit.
“The question whether and when plaintiff or her counsel have obtained financial support in this action has nothing directly to do with the ultimate merits of the case,” the judge opined in the Thursday order, noting that he is not yet issuing a ruling on this question.
