Attorney for Trump Challenges Judge’s Alleged Bias in Carroll Lawsuit

Donald Trump’s lawyer, Alina Habba, is questioning whether new trials are warranted after a report alleging a “conflict of interest” between E. Jean Carroll’s lawyer and the judge in the defamation case against the former president.

The New York Post reported on Saturday that Manhattan federal Judge Lewis Kaplan and Carroll’s lawyer Roberta Kaplan worked together in the early 1990s at the same law firm. The two Kaplans are not related.

The Post said it was an unnamed source who told the newspaper the judge was once Roberta Kaplan’s “mentor.”

“If Your Honor truly worked with Ms. Kaplan in any capacity — especially if there was a mentor/mentee relationship — that fact should have been disclosed before any case involving these parties was permitted to proceed forward,” Habba said in a Monday letter to the judge. “This issue is particularly concerning since plaintiff’s other lead counsel, Shawn Crowley, served as Your Honor’s law clerk, and we were previously advised that Your Honor co-officiated her wedding.”

Habba said she learned for the first time about the allegations as a result of the Post article “that Your Honor, while a partner at the Paul Weiss firm, had a ‘mentor’ type relationship with plaintiff’s lead counsel, Roberta Kaplan,” the Washington Examiner reported.

“Most concerning, is that the article was brought to the New York Post’s attention by an unnamed partner at Paul Weiss, who was aware of the close relationship between you and Ms. Kaplan and stated that ‘Lew was like her mentor,'” she said. “The underlying defamation case tried last year, and the damages trial completed last week, were both litigations in which there were many clashes between Your Honor and defense counsel.

“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. Indeed, the rulings, tone, and demeanor of the bench raised significant concerns even before the New York Post’s investigative journalism unearthed these new facts.

“Here, without knowing more information (or having a specific factual denial by Your Honor that you had a mentor-mentee relationship with Ms. Kaplan), we are unable to flesh out our position concerning what specific relief should be requested, including, but not limited to, moving for new trials on the issues of liability and damages.”