Billionaire LinkedIn Founder Revealed As Secret Donor Funding E. Jean Carroll's Defamation Lawsuit Against Donald Trump
April 14 2023, Published 11:15 a.m. ET
The billionaire who founded career networking site LinkedIn has been revealed as the secret donor behind E. Jean Carroll's lawsuit against ex-president Donald Trump, RadarOnline.com has learned.
Reid Hoffman, a major Democrat donor, has secretly funded Carroll's defamation lawsuit against Trump.
In 2019, Carroll, a magazine columnist, alleged that Trump raped her in the 1990s. Then-president Trump denied the accusation — and doubled-down by claiming he never even met Carroll and that she "wasn't his type" anyways.
Following Trump's remarks, Carroll sued him for defamation in November 2019.
Carroll expanded her claim to include a battery in November 2022 under the Adult Survivors Act.
Since Carroll filed and subsequently expanded her lawsuit, the author and ex-president have been in a tense legal back-and-forth, as Trump's legal team attempted to delay the start of the trial.
Amid the back-and-forth, new documents were filed on Thursday — and the disclosures shocked followers of the case.
Until Thursday's court filings, Hoffman bankrolling Carroll's case was kept secret.
In a letter filed last Thursday by Trump attorneys, Alina Habba and Joe Tacopina, the legal team cited a claim that Carroll made during an October 14 deposition.
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Trump's lawyers claimed that Carroll stated no one was paying for her legal counsel, only to be informed on Monday that Hoffman, as well as nonprofit American Future Republic, were funding the case.
Trump's team additionally claimed that Carroll's attorneys gave them the runaround on the mystery donor.
Habba and Tacopina's alleged that Hoffman was reluctantly identified as the donor after several phone calls to Carroll's counsel.
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While it remained unclear whether or not Hoffman's financial contributions had any impact on the contents of Carroll's case, the LinkedIn founder's political alliances supported Trump's claim that liberal elites conspired against him.
According to Vox, Hoffman used his Silicon Valley wealth to fund Democrat campaigns — and he was focused on diminishing Trump's chokehold on the Republican party.
Hoffman's disapproval of Trump and his policies was so tense that it allegedly caused problems within his friendship with fellow entrepreneur Peter Thiel, a well-known GOP donor.
