Alina Habba on the way out? Trump poised to hire new lawyers for Carroll appeal

On the left, ex-President Donald Trump speaks during a Save America rally on Oct. 1, 2022, in Warren, Michigan. The photo from the right is from his lawyer Alina Habba’s firm. (Photo by Emily Elconin/Getty Images)

Donald Trump is poised to appeal the devastating $83.3 million award he has been ordered to pay writer E. Jean Carroll for defaming her and now he seems ready to ditch his attorney from that trial, Alina Habba, in exchange for new blood.

The potential shift was announced by way of a social media post on the former president’s platform, Truth Social, though it did not mention Habba by name. A representative for Trump did not immediately respond to a request for comment Wednesday.

Denigrating proceedings and the presiding judge in the lengthy online rant, Trump wrote: “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.”

Bringing new attorneys in for an appeal is common as appellate issues often feature different demands than jury trial issues. The announcement is notable however since it arrives just after Habba threw out claims herself against Carroll’s lawyer and then backtracked in letters she filed to the judge handling the Carroll case, U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan.

Reported by Law&Crime Tuesday, Habba suggested that the judge and Carroll’s attorney, Roberta Kaplan — no relation — had worked together in the 1990s and that a reporter citing an unnamed source in the New York Post claimed the judge and attorney had a mentor-mentee relationship.

Habba accused Judge Kaplan of showing Carroll’s lawyer preferential treatment. Roberta Kaplan described the story in the Post and Habba’s accusation as “utterly baseless.”

Habba ended up backtracking once Carroll’s attorney filed a letter of her own, denying the reporting and threatening to seek sanctions against Habba since court rules dictate that attorneys cannot simply enter a filing with allegations lacking evidence.

It has been a contentious streak for the lawyer.

Her skill representing Trump left a lot to be desired by the judge; as the Carroll defamation trial played out, Habba was rebuked at least 14 times from the bench, as Business Insider noted earlier this month. The rebukes often centered on basic requirements Habba seemed unable or unwilling to meet; for example, the judge had to remind her not to “introduce” evidence that is already in evidence, and at another point, the judge had to tell Habba not to read from a document that was not in evidence.

Carroll’s attorney argued Habba attempted to turn the trial into a spectacle.

Joe Tacopina, who once represented Trump in his hush-money case in New York and also represented Trump with his appeal against Carroll’s sexual battery suit, withdrew from both cases this month.

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