Trump civil trial judge weighing Democratic megadonor backing of E. Jean Carroll

As former President Trump’s civil trial over rape allegations gets underway, his legal team is hoping the judge will allow them to tell the jury an opposing political megadonor is funding E. Jean Carroll’s legal fees after it was previously undisclosed.

Jury selection began on Tuesday for Carroll’s federal suit against Trump for sexual battery and defamation. Trump denies her allegations.

Carroll had indicated in an October deposition that no one else was paying her legal fees and that she was “not sure about expenses.”

Earlier this month, Carroll’s lawyers disclosed to Trump’s team that Carroll “now recalls that at some point, her counsel secured additional funding from a nonprofit organization to offset certain expenses and legal fees.”

Billionaire Reid Hoffman, the co-founder of LinkedIn who has donated millions to Democrats and liberal causes, primarily funded that nonprofit, court documents show.

Trump’s lawyers have latched onto the revelation, arguing it raises questions as to Carroll’s credibility. 

After learning of Hoffman’s financial support, Trump’s lawyers attempted to delay the trial by one month. U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan denied that portion of the request, but he allowed discovery to be narrowly reopened to examine the funding.

Carroll’s lawyers, who argue the funding is irrelevant and that Carroll has never met Hoffman, asked Kaplan on Thursday to preclude Trump from introducing any evidence about it during the trial. Trump’s legal team has opposed the request, and Kaplan is expected to rule as early as Wednesday on that matter.

“While Trump’s legal team has characterized my support of Carroll’s lawsuit as ‘secret,’ I want to be clear that I’ve never taken any steps to hide the financial support that I have provided to this lawsuit after it started,” Hoffman wrote on LinkedIn late last week.

“Secondly, and more importantly, while media attention is focused on this specific story, let’s not forget the overall point: the rule of law and the ideal that our courts are a mechanism of justice for all citizens, not just those with enough money and power to rig the game in their favor,” he added.

Carroll is accusing Trump of raping her in the fall of 1995 or the spring of 1996 at the Bergdorf Goodman department store in New York City. She is also suing him for defamation over an October 2022 statement Trump made denying Carroll’s claims and attacking her appearance.