In this courtroom sketch, Thursday, Jan. 25, 2024, Donald Trump, lower left, watches his attorney Alina Habba, standing center, question witness Carol Martin, far right, in federal court in New York. Judge Lewis Kaplan is on the bench, and E. Jean Carroll is seated, background left. (Elizabeth Williams via AP)
Donald Trump is grasping for reasons to appeal the $83.3 million award he has been ordered to pay writer E. Jean Carroll. Through his attorney Alina Habba, the latest attempt arrives through a letter that includes a thin allegation of “incestuous” conflicts of interest between the judge and Carroll’s attorney.
It started with a story in the New York Post published Saturday where an anonymous source alleged that a partner at a prominent law firm, Paul, Weiss, Rifkin, Wharton & Garrison, described the judge presiding over the Carroll defamation trial, U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan, as having an inappropriately close relationship with Roberta Kaplan, Carroll’s lawyer.
There is no relation between the judge and the attorney.
“Lew was like her mentor,” the source told the Post. This information, according to Habba’s letter to Kaplan, could be grounds for recusal or a new trial because it was never previously revealed.
“It was never disclosed. It’s insane and so incestuous,” Habba told the Post.
The judge and lawyer did work together at Paul, Weiss, Rifkin, Wharton & Garrison 30 years ago for just under two years and it was briefly before Lewis Kaplan was appointed to become a judge, according to Reuters.
There is no evidence of impropriety provided in Habba’s letter and noticeably, the letter is devoid of a key element central to typical requests for recusal.
Though Lewis Kaplan and Roberta Kaplan may have had a mentor-mentee relationship three decades ago, even if they did, a conflict of interest would largely hinge on whether their workload overlapped with their relationship. Neither Roberta Kaplan nor Lewis Kaplan were working on the E. Jean Carroll defamation suit or allegations underpinning it related to the writer’s abuse at Trump’s hands in the 1990s.
“While not every mere friendship between a judge and lawyer warrants a possible recusal by a judge, as the Fifth Circuit recently explained, recusal and disqualification issues based on possible bias or prejudice require a ‘highly fact-intensive inquiry,’” Habba wrote.
She continued: “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, motions for new trials on the issues of liability and damages.”
Trump is not alone in his attempts to reverse or mitigate orders from a judge to fork over millions. Rudy Giuliani, a Trump ally and fellow co-defendant indicted in Georgia for alleged efforts to overturn election results, recently declared bankruptcy after he was ordered to pay two election workers he defamed $148 million. Giuliani claims he has a “net income” of roughly $2,300.
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