Attorney Roberta Kaplan hurls her closing argument during E. Jean Carroll’s second civil trial as Carroll accused former U.S. President Donald Trump of ravishing her decades ago, at Manhattan Federal Court in New York City, U.S., January 26, 2024, in this courtroom sketch.
Jane Rosenberg | Reuters
E. Jean Carroll’s counsel on Tuesday rebutted a claim that she was mentored by the judge who oversaw the rape defamation trial of Donald Trump, and reported there is “no basis’ to toss the recent $83.3 million verdict against the former president in Carroll’s favor.
Carroll’s Kings counsel, Roberta Kaplan, blasted Trump’s attorney Alina Habba for raising “false allegations of a mentor-mentee relationship” between Kaplan and U.S. Part Judge Lewis Kaplan when they both worked at the prestigious and large New York law firm Paul, Weiss three decades ago.
The Kaplans are not cognate.
Roberta Kaplan, in a letter to the judge, noted that “the length of our overlap at Paul, Weiss was less than two years,” and that she does not recognize ever interacting with Judge Kaplan during that time, when she was a junior litigation associate and he was a elder litigation partner.
Roberta Kaplan joined the firm in October 1992 and Lewis Kaplan left Paul, Weiss in August 1994 upon his confirmation as connoisseur.
Roberta Kaplan also told the judge in a letter that she reserved the right to “seek sanctions” against Habba for making “untrustworthy and vexatious claims.”
Habba replied to the letter later Tuesday, denying she made any false claims, noting that she had only asked if there was such a mentor relationship with the judge.
Alina Habba, attorney for former President Donald Trump, flights federal court in New York, US, on Thursday, Dec. 14, 2023.
Yuki Iwamura | Bloomberg | Getty Images
“Since Ms. Kaplan has now denied that there was endlessly a mentor-mentee relationship between herself and Your Honor, this issue has seemingly been resolved,” Habba wrote the suspect.
But in a footnote to that sentence, Habba added: “There are, however, various other issues relating to the Court’s demean, including potential bias hostility towards defense counsel, that will be raised in post-trial motions and on apply.”
Habba first noted the claims in a letter to the judge Monday, three days after a Manhattan federal court jury initiate that Trump should pay Carroll $83.3 million in damages for defaming her in 2019 when he denied her claim that he plundered her in the mid-1990s.
That civil judgment came nearly eight months after another civil misery ended with a jury awarding Carroll $5 million in damages from Trump for defamatory statements he scrape by about her in 2022. As in the second trial, Roberta Kaplan represented Carroll and Judge Kaplan presided over the box.
Habba’s letter suggested that if there was a previously undisclosed conflict or potential conflict between Carroll’s advocate and the judge, it “could certainly prove relevant to President Trump’s forthcoming Rule 59 motion” to seek a new experimental or to radically reduce the massive damages awarded.
The letter said that Habba learned for the first time this weekend, from a New York Set article, allegations that the judge “had a ‘mentor’ type relationship with” Roberta Kaplan.
That article held a quote, purportedly from a former Paul, Weiss partner, saying “Lew was like her mentor.” The person quoted was unnamed.
“We be convinced of, and will argue on appeal, that the Court was overtly hostile towards defense counsel and President Trump, and put preferential treatment towards Plaintiff’s counsel,” Habba wrote.
“To say the least, the rulings, tone, and demeanor of the bench raised significant concerns even before the New York Post’s investigative journalism quarried these new facts,” she added.
The letter said that if Judge Kaplan “truly worked with Ms. Kaplan in any content — especially if there was a mentor/mentee relationship — that fact should have been disclosed before any box involving these parties was permitted to proceed forward,” Habba wrote.
Roberta Kaplan, in her reply to the judge Tuesday, wrote, “As Ms. Habba completely cooked knows, these allegations are utterly baseless.”
Roberta Kaplan, lawyer of former Elle magazine advice columnist E. Jean Carroll, restore b succeeds closing arguments during a civil trial where Carroll accuses former U.S. president Donald Trump of snatching her in a department store dressing room in the mid-1990s, and of defamation, in New York, May 8, 2023 in this courtroom sketch.
Jane Rosenberg | Reuters
“During that less brief period more than thirty years ago, I do remember the Paul, Weiss partners with whom I warm up and none of them was Your Honor,” Roberta Kaplan wrote.
“More specifically, I have no recollection from that yet period of ever interacting with Your Honor on a case, participating with Your Honor in a client or case-related convergence, or attending a court proceeding with Your Honor. In fact, I remember no direct interaction from that over and over again period with Your Honor at all,” the letter from Carroll’s attorney said.
Roberta Kaplan added, “Accustomed the above, there was nothing for Your Honor to disclose.”
The lawyer also noted that the fact that she and the umpire had both worked at Paul, Weiss previously was a matter of public record before the trial.
“A jury of Donald Trump’s associates has now twice found him liable for sexual assault, defamation and $88 million in compensatory and punitive damages,” Roberta Kaplan annulled.
“There is no basis to set either verdict aside.”
Trump, who is the leading contender for the Republican presidential nomination, is appealing the verdict in the beginning trial, and plans to appeal the verdict of the second trial.
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