Why the E. Jean Carroll Perjury Case is DOA

Added: 2026-05-30

[00:00:00]The Justice Department has opened up a criminal investigation into another one of Trump's enemies. This time it's Eene Carol. Let's discuss. I'm Dave Arinberg, former state attorney for Palm Beach County, aka the Florida law man here on Substack. Thank you for your support.

[00:00:15]Hit the subscribe button if you haven't done so already. If you're watching on YouTube, thank you for your support there as well. Thank you for the nice comments. And if you would like a two-way conversation, a live Q&A, which we've scheduled for June 3rd, 6 p.m.

[00:00:33]Eastern Standard Time, hit the upgrade button. That's uh if you're on Substack.

[00:00:38]So, let's discuss Eugene Carol. Okay, Eugene Carroll famously sued Donald Trump civily and won. This was the sexual assault case where the jury found that she was credible and she won millions of dollars against Donald Trump. This puts her on Trump's enemies list. We've seen what's happened to those on his enemies list. Leticia James, James Comey, John Bolton, and others like Adam Schiff, the members of Congress who did the video saying you can avoid or reject unconstitutional illegal orders if you're in the military and others who are facing prosecution.

[00:01:23]Kilmar Argo Garcia, who we just did a video about, and although he's not a personal enemy of Donald Trump's, is someone that has been a focus of the Trump administration and he had his case dismissed because of vindictive prosecution. Well, looks like Egene Carol, if she does get prosecuted, will have the same type of defense, vindictive prosecution. And normally, you can't win those cases. They're so hard to win. But the seal has been broken. Abrego Garcia won that case.

[00:01:55]Egent Carrot will have the same defense.

[00:01:57]Also remember this defense was going to be used by James Comey and Leticia James, but they had their cases dismissed on a different ground that the prosecutor Lindseay Halligan was appointed improperly.

[00:02:10]But as I said, the seal has been broken and you can expect more vindictive prosecution defenses to come down the pike, especially if this pattern continues. And that's the problem. If you are Trump and his prosecutors at the Justice Department, the more you go after Trump's enemies, the more of a defense can be built up to then unleash onto a court saying, "Here, here is the proof that this is vindictive prosecution." Because it's not just me.

[00:02:37]Look at all the others who have faced prosecution. This is selective and vindictive. And yes, I think that Egene Car will have a good claim if she's ever prosecuted. But what is she being prosecuted for? This new investigation by the Department of Justice against Egene Carol focuses on one thing, whether she committed perjury during her 2022 deposition when she testified that she had no outside financial backing for her lawsuits against Donald Trump. Now, it was later disclosed that a nonprofit funded by billionaire LinkedIn co-founder Reed Hoffman had paid a portion of her legal fees.

[00:03:19]So, is that perjury?

[00:03:22]Not so fast. According to the New York Times, Andrew S. Bros, the Trump appointed US attorney for the Northern District of Illinois, opened the inquiry into Miss Carol. According to the person with knowledge of the situation, it was not immediately clear why the investigation, Miss Carol, was being conducted by Mr. Bros, who is based in Chicago, although a nonprofit associated with Mr. Hoffman is there. That's that's why they're targeting because she's a New Yorker. She's not a Chicago, but that perhaps is the nexus there. And they have this prosecutor, this US attorney who is willing to move forward with this. Reed Hoffman who was a founder of LinkedIn has a lot of money and he is also an enemy of Trump. So this is perhaps the connection. Now keep in mind when you are trying to prosecute someone you can you have to go through the grand jury if you're a federal prosecutor but although the federal grand jury can indict a ham sandwich can indict just based on probable cause and it's a onesided conversation inside a grand jury room.

[00:04:23]There is no defense lawyer. There's not even a judge. It's just the prosecutors and the grand jurors and the witnesses that they bring in that the prosecutors choose to bring in and then it's up to the grand jury just to find probable cause. And all they need is a majority, not unonymity. And so although it's relatively easy to get an indictment, that's not the ethical responsibility of prosecutors. They have to only pursue cases when they have a good faith belief they can get a conviction beyond a reasonable doubt. And here you're not going to get a conviction beyond a reasonable doubt. But they may decide to please an audience of one and just to move forward with this anyways. But in the end it looks bad for prosecutors when these cases blow up. Just ask Lindseay Halligan. Just ask John Durham.

[00:05:12]Remember, he was tasked to investigate the investigators in the Russia probe.

[00:05:18]And what happened? Well, he went to trial on two minor cases and lost both quickly. Egg on his face, reputation ruined. Is it worth it? No. It's so hard for prosecutors to win a perjury case.

[00:05:31]The government has to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant willfully and intentionally lied under oath. Not that they were confused, mistaken, not an accident, not that they lacked information, that they knew the truth and willfully and intentionally lied under oath. It's really a tough charge to prove. And when it came to Eegene Carol, the question here, I think, is going to be about who funded a lawsuit. Carol's legal team disclosed the outside funding to the judge in her trial and to Trump's team months before the trial ever began.

[00:06:11]So, how do you line her oath then? Also, her attorneys said that Carol herself had never met or spoken with anyone from Hoffman's nonprofit. So, if she was genuinely unaware of the back and forth ways that they financed this lawsuit, then that is not perjury.

[00:06:34]So, I don't know where they're going to I mean, this is the where they're going to go from here. I mean, especially because to prove perjury, you also need to prove materiality. It's got to be like really relevant. it it's got to be capable of significantly influencing the outcome of the case. So if it's something that's a minor detail, something that's not important to the ultimate fact here or the question here of was there sexual assault or whether there was defamation, if it's like a incil ancillary issue like who funded the lawsuit, I don't think that meets the requirement of materiality.

[00:07:13]You know, when the funding was disclosed, the trial judge in this case, they allowed Trump's defense team to depose Carol a second time specifically on this topic. And it I I just think that the funding issue, the disclosure was already resolved before trial. So, it didn't change the judgment of the jury here who looked at the evidence and decided there was sexual abuse. There was defamation.

[00:07:39]And so now to prosecute her for something that is likely not material and also is gonna be impossible to prove I think and then even if you do file the charge there's vindictive prosecution which is a defense that can get the case dismissed.

[00:07:54]So I mean and and and one last thing she's a sympathetic defendant here if she's prosecuted.

[00:08:02]She's an 82-year-old woman who has taken on one of the most powerful people in the world and she won. And that's who you're going to sentence to put behind bars.

[00:08:15]You're going to get a unanimous jury beyond a reasonable doubt.

[00:08:19]If it does get that far, this case will be dismissed. It'll be dismissed early.

[00:08:23]It'll be dismissed by the judge. It'll never get to a jury. Whether it's based on vindictive prosecution, selective prosecution, whether it's based on the fact that there are no compelling facts here that would warrant a prosecution, that there is no chance of a jury finding beyond a reasonable doubt.

[00:08:40]So, this thing is DOA and DOJ should probably realize that early on because there are real crimes out there that need to be investigated and prosecuted.

[00:08:55]This is not one of them, but we'll keep following it here on Substack and YouTube. I'm Dave Aaronburg, aka the Florida law man. If you like this video, hit the subscribe button and please consider upgrading your subscription. I appreciate all your support and I'll see you next time.