Donald Trump is again looking for a new lawyer after taking a huge loss in the defamation case against him launched by E. Jean Carroll, who a jury found to be a victim of sexual assault by the president.
The New York Times writes, “He did not go to jail, and has not lost his grip on the race for the Republican presidential nomination, but a jury’s verdict in a civil defamation trial last week nonetheless hit Donald J. Trump where it hurts: his wallet.
The jury’s decision to award $83.3 million to E. Jean Carroll came at an inopportune moment for the former president, who might soon face another large penalty from a civil fraud case brought by the New York attorney general, Letitia James. Mr. Trump and his family business are bracing for the judge in that case to impose a punishment in the coming weeks that could reach hundreds of millions of dollars.
Together, the judgments might deliver a punishing one-two punch to the former president, a financial threat unlike any he has experienced in decades.”
Forbes explained the precarious situation the former president, and current GOP frontrunner, finds himself in.
Trump intends to appeal the verdict, and said on Truth Social Tuesday he and his team were “in the process” of interviewing “various law firms” to represent him as he appeals what he described as “one of the most ridiculous and unfair Witch Hunts our Country has ever seen.”
The ex-president was represented at the initial trial by attorney Alina Habba—who also represents him in the civil fraud case against him and his company, and in other cases—who was repeatedly chided by U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan at the trial and had to be reminded of basic courtroom procedures.
Following the trial verdict, Habba filed a letter with the court alleging Kaplan had an improper bias in the case, citing a New York Post report on his previous work at the same firm as Carroll’s attorney Roberta Kaplan (no relation) that mentored the lawyer—which legal experts said wouldn’t constitute a conflict of interest that would require him to recuse.
Roberta Kaplan denied the claims the judge mentored her as “baseless” in a court filing Tuesday—noting she and the judge had only overlapped at the same firm for two years and never interacted in that time—and suggested she could ask the court to sanction Habba for making the claim, to which Habba then told the court she was just trying to ask if there was any truth to the Post report and would drop the issue.
Last week, Tim Parlatore, a one-time lawyer for Donald Trump according to Newsweek that Habba was not a good lawyer and essentially cost the former president the case.
During a Friday appearance on CNN, Parlatore said Trump would likely regret the decision to hire Habba.
“Certainly, from my perspective, I would regret having her represent him,” Parlatore told host Kaitlan Collins. “I do think in both of these trials, he was essentially undefended and I think that it could’ve turned out differently.”
He looks to be right.
