Trump Lawyer Alina Habba Demands Retrial After $83M Defamation Verdict, Cites 'Conflict of Interest' Between Judge and E. Jean Carroll's Lawyer
Donald Trump’s attorney Alina Habba recently demanded a retrial in the ex-president’s $83 million defamation case.
Jan. 30 2024, Published 11:00 a.m. ET
Donald Trump’s attorney Alina Habba recently demanded a retrial in the ex-president’s defamation case due to an alleged “conflict of interest” between Judge Lewis Kaplan and E. Jean Carroll’s lawyer, RadarOnline.com has learned.
In a sudden development to come after Trump was ordered to pay writer E. Jean Carroll a whopping $83.3 million, the former president’s attorney filed a letter in federal court on Monday.
Carroll joked that she would use the award money to buy Maddow a 'penthouse.'
According to Habba’s letter, Judge Kaplan provided Carroll and Carroll’s lawyer Roberta Kaplan “preferential treatment” during the defamation proceedings because Judge Kaplan and Roberta Kaplan worked together at the same law firm for two years in the 1990s.
“We believe, and will argue on appeal, that the Court was overtly hostile towards defense counsel and President Trump, and displayed preferential treatment towards Plaintiff’s counsel,” Habba wrote on Monday.
Habba also claimed that Judge Kaplan and Roberta Kaplan’s professional relationship was “never disclosed” during the multi-million-dollar civil proceedings against Trump.
“It was never disclosed,” Trump’s defense attorney charged. “It's insane and so incestuous.”
Habba stood by her prior letter in a response issued today despite critics calling her out for backtracking on her recent allegations.
“This is news to us,” Habba continued. “We are going to include this in our appeal and take appropriate measures. The fact it wasn't disclosed is an ethics violation.”
According to Daily Mail, Judge Kaplan and Roberta Kaplan – who are not related but share the same surname – worked together for two years at the Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison law firm in the early 1990s.
Judge Kaplan left the law firm in 1994 upon being appointed to the federal bench.
A representative for Carroll’s lawyer dismissed Habba’s conflict of interest claims and insisted that Roberta Kaplan “never worked” for Judge Kaplan during their time together at Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison from roughly 1992 to 1994.
Habba doubled down on Trump's legal argument that Carroll brought the second case for 'publicity.'
“They overlapped for less than two years in the early 1990s at a large law firm when he was a senior partner and she was a junior associate and she never worked for him,” Zak Sawyer said in a statement.
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Meanwhile, several legal experts expressed skepticism regarding Habba’s efforts to have the $83.3 million verdict against Trump thrown out.
“No competent lawyer in the world thinks this motion has a shot,” lawyer Andrew Fleischman tweeted. “Point me to the lawyer saying so, and I'll point you to his incompetence.”
Ex-President Trump was ordered to pay Carroll a whopping $83.3 million in damages on Friday.
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“Sure, go ahead & complain that a judge and a lawyer were briefly at the same firm & pretend that's a conflict,” former U.S. attorney Joyce Vance added.
As RadarOnline.com previously reported, ex-President Trump was ordered to pay Carroll a whopping $83.3 million in damages on Friday for defaming the writer in 2019.
Trump was previously ordered to pay Carroll $5 million in damages in May 2023 after another jury found that the ex-president was liable for defaming and sexually assaulting the writer in the Manhattan department store in the 1990s.
Trump’s defense team is expected to appeal Friday’s $83.3 million verdict.
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