Trump attorney Alina Habba on Tuesday walked back her claim of a potential conflict of interest by the judge in the E. Jean Carroll defamation case but signaled that the former president will seek a new trial in the case.
Habba on Monday raised questions about a potential conflict of interest stemming from the fact that Judge Lewis Kaplan and Carroll attorney Roberta Kaplan, who are not related, worked briefly at the same law firm in the 90s. Habba walked back her suggestion after Roberta Kaplan refuted the allegation and threatened to pursue sanctions over Habba’s “utterly baseless” claim.
"They've insinuated that they're gonna file a motion for a new trial," MSNBC legal analyst Lisa Rubin explained on Tuesday. "That's even in the letter where they've conceded that there actually isn't a problem between the two Kaplans. They drop a footnote saying, 'Of course, we're going to address this bias problem that the judge has with us in our post-trial motions, including, potentially under rule 59 — a shorthand for a motion for a new trial."
Rubin then pointed out that Trump’s legal team “tried a lot of these kinds of wacky things so far.”
“They've asked for a refusal recusal of Judge Kaplan, on the basis of his relationship with another of E. Jean Carroll's lawyers,” she said. “They've asked for a mistrial after E. Jean Carroll admitted to deleting death threats against her. So this is the third time they've tried for a do-over or cutting it short, based on bias or alleged improprieties because they know they don't have real substantive grounds for appeal."
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