Trump DOJ's investigation of E. Jean Carroll could backfire spectacularly: analyst

President Donald Trump's Justice Department has opened a federal criminal investigation into the legal funding for E. Jean Carroll, the writer who successfully sued Trump for defamation after accusing him of rape, and the investigation could reportedly expand into whether Carroll committed perjury when she discussed the source of her legal fees.

But this move is going to blow up in his face, Steve Benen wrote for MS NOW's MaddowBlog in an analysis published Thursday — not only because he won't get a conviction out of it, but because it will only bring his long history of alleged sexual abuse back into the spotlight.

To understand this, Benen wrote, you need only look at the "Broadview Six", the anti-Immigration and Customs Enforcement protesters arrested in Chicago last year: "It was just last week when a federal judge threw out the remaining charges after calling in the prosecutor overseeing the case, U.S. Attorney Andrew Boutros, to condemn a series of missteps and improprieties the judge considered shocking."

This case, along with the now-dismissed charges against Salvadoran immigrant Kilmar Abrego Garcia, is already creating ample fodder for federal defendants to claim selective or vindictive prosecution by the administration — and Carroll would have an easy path to doing so, Benen wrote.

First, he said, Carroll's attorneys "are likely to claim vindictive prosecution, which might very well work." In fact, "the mere existence of this investigation lends obvious weight to allegations that the Trump-led Justice Department has been corrupted to such a brazen extent that it frequently pursues dubious cases against certain Americans simply because the president doesn’t like them."

To add insult to injury, he said, regardless of how the case actually turns out, "it would also remind the public of details many Americans may have forgotten: A jury of regular people was presented with extensive evidence, before holding Trump civilly liable for sexual assault." And all that would be relitigated once again as part of these proceedings.

All of this unfolds as Trump is still trying to appeal having to pay the massive, multimillion-dollar judgments against him for the Carroll defamation case.