The Justice Department has opened a criminal investigation into E. Jean Carroll, the 82-year-old former magazine writer who accused Donald J. Trump of sexual assault, according to two people with direct knowledge of the situation.

The investigation centers on whether Ms. Carroll committed perjury in civil lawsuits against Mr. Trump, according to the person, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss an ongoing investigation. Ms. Carroll won a $5 million civil judgment against Mr. Trump that he had sexually abused and defamed her, which the president last November asked the Supreme Court to overturn. She also won a $83.3 million civil judgment against him in another defamation case.

An inquiry into Ms. Carroll would represent the latest chapter in Mr. Trump’s retribution campaign, which has been carried out by Justice Department officials. A number of figures who brought criminal and civil cases against Mr. Trump have come under the department’s scrutiny, including James B. Comey, New York Attorney General Letitia James and other adversaries of the president.....

Mr. Blanche has aggressively pursued investigations against people Mr. Trump has targeted. Last month, the department charged James B. Comey, the former F.B.I. director, over a social media post of seashells arranged in the numbers “86 47,” which prosecutors said was a threat against Mr. Trump. Mr. Comey has said he did not associate the phrase with violence and denied wrongdoing.

Mr. Trump’s revenge campaign kicked into high gear last September when he publicly demanded that the then-attorney general, Pam Bondi, move to prosecute several of his adversaries. Within several weeks, a newly selected prosecutor in the Eastern District of Virginia had indicted Mr. Comey and Ms. James. But both of those cases were thrown out by a judge, and, despite the newer indictment of Mr. Comey last month, the department has struggled to gain traction in a number of cases against Mr. Trump’s adversaries.....

The Justice Department’s leadership also has made extensive use of a provision that allows the designation of cases to handpicked prosecutors across the country, regardless of whether possible crimes occurred in their jurisdictions.

The department assigned its investigation into John Brennan, the former C.I.A. director, to the U.S. attorney in Miami, Jason Reding Quiñones, because he was seen as more willing to pursue a case viewed as questionable by other offices, according to former officials.

The Justice Department has launched a criminal probe into a Chicago-based nonprofit backed by billionaire Reid Hoffman over its payment of legal bills of E. Jean Carroll, the advice columnist who accused President Donald Trump of sexual assault, according to two people familiar with the matter.

The investigation, which is expected to look at statements Carroll made during a deposition, could also morph into a criminal perjury probe against the 82-year-old columnist, said the people familiar with the matter, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss an ongoing probe. The nascent investigation follows years of Trump publicly deriding Carroll, his accuser, and Hoffman, a major Democratic Party donor.....

In a 2022 deposition, Carroll testified that outside funders were not helping her to bring the lawsuit. It later became public that Hoffman’s nonprofit, American Future Republic, paid some of her legal bills.

The investigation is centered on this statement and whether American Future Republic, which largely gives grants to left leaning causes, could have directed Carroll to lie during that deposition, according to the people familiar with the probe. The investigation is examining potential money laundering, conspiracy and obstruction charges, the people said......

Trump’s personal defense attorneys have previously brought up Carroll’s statement during the deposition — and how the trial judge handled the evidence around the payment of her legal fees — as a potential reason to overturn the verdict.

But a panel of federal appeals judges ruled in 2024 that it was plausible that she had simply forgotten about the funding when she testified — and had not intended to mislead the defense. According to court records, Carroll’s legal team said they would be paid on contingency, meaning her attorneys would only get paid if and when she prevailed before a jury or reached a monetary settlement.

In 2020, her defense team had informed her that they secured outside funding for some legal fees, according to the court records. Carrol said that she did not speak with her counsel again about this until 2023 and that when she testified in 2022, she had forgotten about it, according to court records.

“There was no evidence to suggest that Ms. Carroll was personally involved in securing the funding, interacted with the funder, received an invoice showing the arrangement before or after her counsel received the outside funding, or had discussed the arrangement with anyone between learning of it in September 2020 and being deposed in October 2022,” the panel of appeals court judges found.