The Supreme Court just teed up something it hasn't done since 2018: a second look at a case it already declined to hear. The justices distributed Donald Trump's petition for rehearing in the E. Jean Carroll case this week. It could land on the August 17 order list. Everyone has moved on to the next headline. I haven't, and here's why.

I spent years working in private security before I ever touched a balance sheet. I know what it looks like when a room decides who's guilty before the facts show up. That's what happened here.

Start with the money. Carroll's litigation was bankrolled in part by Reid Hoffman, the LinkedIn billionaire and major Democratic donor, through a nonprofit called American Future Republic, which funneled roughly $7 million to her lawyers. Hoffman's role stayed hidden until weeks before the first trial in 2023, after Carroll testified in her 2022 deposition that no one else was paying her legal fees. The Justice Department is now investigating whether that was perjury. A federal appeals court let the funding question slide, ruling Carroll had plausibly forgotten who was cutting the checks. Maybe. I've reviewed enough litigation finance arrangements to know a $7 million check doesn't get forgotten.

Then there's the underlying claim. Carroll alleged Trump assaulted her in a Bergdorf Goodman........

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