You don’t have to be nuts to work here, but it helps.
That seems to be the message Donald Trump is sending to attorneys as he looks for a new firm to represent him in an appeal against last week’s ruling ordering him to pay $83.3 million to E. Jean Carroll. “Any lawyer who takes a TRUMP CASE is either ‘CRAZY,’ or a TRUE AMERICAN PATRIOT,” the former president said in a Truth Social post.
Trump was ordered to hand over the hefty sum after a jury in May concluded that he defamed Carroll by calling her a liar when she accused him of sexual assault. Now the 2024 GOP frontrunner says he needs help in his effort to overturn the bruising courtroom defeat.
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“I am in the process, along with my team, of interviewing various law firms to represent me in an Appeal of one of the most ridiculous and unfair Witch Hunts our Country has ever seen - The defamation Sham presided over by a Clinton appointed, highly partisan, Trump Hating Judge, Lewis Kaplan, who was, together with certain other Radical Left Democrat Judges, one of the most partisan and out of control activists that I have ever appeared before,” Trump’s rant began.
He went on to claim that Judge Kaplan was a “bully” who denied him due process over the course of the proceedings. “This entire HOAX is a disgrace to our American System of Justice,” he added.
Trump did not explain why he’s looking for fresh blood in his legal team for his appeal. Alina Habba, one of his existing attorneys, made headlines this week by accusing Judge Kaplan of having an “insane” conflict of interest because he’d previously worked, for a brief time, at the same firm as Carroll lawyer Roberta Kaplan (no relation).
Habba’s bold accusation—which was based on the claims of an anonymous source in a New York Post article—was dismissed as “utterly baseless” by Roberta Kaplan, with the lawyer threatening to pursue sanctions against Habba for trying to discredit the court.
Habba abandoned the conflict allegation hours later, saying the issue had “seemingly been resolved.”
