E. Jean Carroll’s lawyer on Tuesday blasted as “utterly baseless” a claim that the judge who oversaw the defamation battle between her client and Donald Trump had a conflict of interest.
Roberta Kaplan — the lead attorney who helped clinch a whopping $83 million verdict for Carroll last week — fired back at a “false” accusation that Manhattan federal Judge Lewis Kaplan (no relation) was like a “mentor” to her when they worked at law firm Paul, Weiss, Rifkin, Wharton & Garrison at the same time in the 1990s.
“I have no recollection from that time period of ever interacting with Your Honor on a case, participating with Your Honor in a client or case-related meeting, or attending a court proceeding with Your Honor,” Kaplan wrote in a letter to the judge.
The 57-year-old attorney said she and Judge Kaplan, 79, did overlap at the white-shoe firm, but for “less than two years,” and she couldn’t recall any “direct interaction” with him during that period.
“Needless to say, at no point have we ever had a ‘mentor’ type relationship,” the letter said.
Due to the pair’s lack of contact while working at the firm — the lawyer as a junior associate and the judge as a senior partner — “there was nothing for Your Honor to disclose” in the defamation case, the attorney wrote.
E. Jean Carroll’s lawyer Roberta Kaplan blasted conflict-of-interest claims against her and the judge who oversaw the defamation case against Donald Trump. REUTERSTrump lawyer Alina Habba on Monday demanded answers about whether the pair’s time overlapping at the firm amounted to a conflict of interest.
When first asked about it by Post columnist Charles Gasparino in a report over the weekend, Habba said the alleged connection sounded “insane and so incestuous” to her, and that she would use it as a basis for Trump’s appeal of the case.
Roberta Kaplan, in her response Tuesday, said the timing of the “false accusations” emerging was “troubling.”
“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,” the lawyer wrote.
Kaplan also said an anonymous source cited by The Post in Saturday’s story “clearly has a very flawed memory about events that occurred three decades ago.”
The source — whom the story identifies as an anonymous former partner at the firm — claimed that “Lew was like her mentor,” referring to Judge Kaplan.
Trump lawyer Alina Habba demanded answers Monday about whether the judge was a “mentor” for Roberta Kaplan when the pair worked at the same law firm in the 1990s. Getty ImagesRoberta Kaplan’s letter also floated the idea of asking the judge to issue sanctions against Habba for promoting the “baseless” allegations.
Two hours later, Habba responded in her own letter that she is ready to drop the issue and move on.
“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,” Habba wrote.
Habba added that the opposing lawyer had made “inflammatory and unwarranted accusations” against her, and clarified that she simply wanted to know whether the claim was true.
On Friday, a nine-person jury awarded Carroll the massive verdict following a week-long trial in which her side claimed Trump, 77, ruined her journalistic reputation when he said he’d never met her after she came forward in 2019 with accusations that he sexually assaulted her in a Bergdorf Goodman fitting room in 1996.
Trump’s lawyers argued that the former “Ask E. Jean” advice columnist relished the public spotlight after going public and that the 2024 GOP presidential hopeful’s statements made from the White House in June 2019 were merely to defend his name and part of his right to free speech.
Roberta Kaplan clarified that she didn’t recall having any interactions with the judge when they worked at the same firm. Robert Strauss Center
A jury on Friday awarded Carroll an $83 million verdict that Trump must pay for defaming her. APAfter the verdict came down Friday afternoon, Trump ripped the outcome as “Absolutely ridiculous!” in a post on Truth Social.
The Big Apple journalist, in an appearance on “The Rachel Maddow Show” on MSNBC Monday night, quipped that she would use the cash awarded to her in the case for a new wardrobe.
A separate jury last year found the real estate mogul liable for sexually abusing Carroll and awarded her $5 million. Trump is appealing that case.
A rep for Roberta Kaplan declined to comment beyond the court papers Tuesday, while Habba didn’t immediately return a request for comment.
