Donald Trump and (inset) attorney Alina Habba (Photo: Shutterstock)
Despite vowing to appeal the judge’s recent ruling in the Donald Trump defamation case with Jean E. Carroll, many were left wondering this morning if Alina Habba’s time with Trump was up.
Last night, Trump announced on Truth Social that he was seeking new legal help to fight the case.
“I am in the process, along with my team, of interviewing various law firms to represent me in an Appeal of one of the most ridiculous and unfair Witch Hunts our country has ever seen – The defamation Scam presided over by a Clinton appointed, highly partisan, Trump hating judge, Lewis Kaplan.”
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He then went on to lambast Judge Kaplan for how the trial was run. He seemed particularly irked that the judge only allowed him to take the stand “for minutes”.
Trump ended his Truth Social posting by saying, “Any lawyer who takes a Trump case is either ‘CRAZY,’ or a ‘TRUE AMERICAN PATRIOT’. I will make my decision soon.”
Online, many concluded this could only mean one thing: Alina Habba is out.
However, Habba insists this is not the case. Queerty reached out to her to ask if she was still representing Trump and working on the case.
“Of course I am. We are hiring appellate firms,” she replied, via email.
An appellate law firm is a legal practice that specializes in handling cases on appeal.
The defamation damages
Last Friday, Judge Kaplan ordered Trump to pay damages of around $83.3 million to veteran journalist Carroll. In 2019, Trump accused Carroll of lying about their encounter in the 1990s, when he sexually assaulted her in a department store changing room.
This comes after a 2022 civil defamation trial in which Trump was ordered to pay $5 million to Carroll.
Trump was represented in his most recent trial by Habba. She faced frequent criticism for her performance in the courtroom.
Following last Friday’s ruling, on Monday Habba filed a letter to the court. It concerned an article in the New York Post. That story alleged that Judge Lewis Kaplan and Carroll’s attorney Roberta Kaplan (no relation), had worked together in the 1990s at a large law firm. An unidentified source at the firm alleged Lewis Kaplan was “like [Roberta Kaplan’s] mentor.”
Habba suggested this was a conflict of interest and ethics violation. She went as far as telling the New York Post it was “insane and so incestuous” and, if true, it would be part of Trump’s appeal.
“Utterly baseless”
However, both Judge Kaplan and Roberta Kaplan have blasted the claims. In a letter to the court, Roberta Kaplan yesterday said the “allegations are utterly baseless.” Both acknowledged working for the same law firm between 1992-94. However, Roberta said she could remember having no interactions with Lewis Kaplan at all during that overlap in their careers.
Roberta Kaplan ended her letter by suggesting she would not let the matter end with a denial. She might seek sanctions against Habba.
“From the very start of the recently concluded trial, Donald Trump and Ms. Habba have pushed a false narrative of judicial bias so that they could characterize any jury verdict against Trump as the product of a corrupt system. While that strategy has now moved into its post-verdict phase, it is now time for Defendant’s false and vexatious claims of bias or impropriety to stop.”
Habba responded in another statement. She claimed she was just asking questions and now wanted to drop the matter and move on.
“The purpose of the letter was simply to inquire as to whether there is any merit to a recently published New York Post story which reported on the alleged existence of such a relationship,” she wrote. “Since Ms. Kaplan has now denied that there was ever a mentor-mentee relationship between herself and Your Honor, this issue has seemingly been resolved.”
pic.twitter.com/qg3dMhgmUz— Ryan Shead (@RyanShead) January 31, 2024
