Donald Trump’s lawyers will use an “insane” and previously unknown “conflict of interest” between E. Jean Carroll’s lawyer and the judge presiding over her defamation case against the former president as the basis of their appeal seeking to toss the eye-popping $83.3 million jury verdict, The Post has learned.
Trump lawyer Alina Habba said she was unaware Manhattan federal Judge Lewis Kaplan and Carroll’s lawyer Roberta Kaplan worked together in the early 1990s at the same powerhouse white-shoe law firm until Saturday, when asked about it by Post columnist Charles Gasparino, who was told by a source that the judge was once Roberta Kaplan’s “mentor.
“It was never disclosed. It’s insane and so incestuous,” Habba said, insisting neither the 79-year-old judge nor Roberta Kaplan, 57, who aren’t related, disclosed the “conflict of interest” and a violation of judicial ethics rules.
Roberta Kaplan worked at Paul, Weiss Rifkin, Wharton & Garrison in Midtown from 1992 to 2016, before leaving to become a founding partner of Kaplan Hecker & Fink, according to her LinkedIn page.
“This is news to us,” she continued. “We are going to include this in our appeal and take appropriate measures. The fact it wasn’t disclosed is an ethics violation.”
During her early years at Paul Weiss, she worked as associate of the firm at the same time as Judge Kaplan, who was a partner there until 1994 when he was appointed to the federal bench by then-President Bill Clinton.
Zak Sawyer, a rep for Roberta Kaplan, insisted no conflict exists.
“They overlapped for less than two years in the early 1990s at a large law firm when he was a senior partner and she was a junior associate and she never worked for him,” said Sawyer, who declined to provide further comment.
But a former Paul Weiss partner who asked not to be named said like all associates at the firm, Roberta Kaplan did her best to distinguish herself before partners, including Lewis Kaplan.
“Lew was like her mentor,” claimed the former partner.
Messages left with Judge Kaplan’s chambers and a rep for Paul Weiss were not returned Saturday.
Trump was previously ordered to pay Carroll $5 million in May after a jury found him liable for abusing her inside a Bergdorf Goodman fitting room in 1996.
On Friday, Judge Kaplan oversaw the staggering $83.3 million judgment awarded to Carroll in Manhattan federal court by a jury of five men and four women.
The jury found Trump liable for slandering Carroll in 2019 when he dismissed her sexual assault claims as a “hoax” and called her a “whack job.”
Some legal experts have questioned the size of the award because it’s unclear how much monetary damage Trump caused Carroll.
Following Friday’s verdict, Trump vowed to appeal both decisions.
“Absolutely ridiculous!” he railed on Truth Social. “I fully disagree with both verdicts, and will be appealing this whole Biden Directed Witch Hunt focused on me and the Republican Party. Our Legal System is out of control, and being used as a Political Weapon.”
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