President Trump is looking for a law firm for his appeal of the recent verdict in the lawsuit brought against him by writer E. Jean Carroll. Last month, a jury in Manhattan ordered Mr. Trump to pay the astronomical amount of $83.3 million in damages to the former magazine columnist for defaming her in 2019 after she accused him of rape. 

“I am in the process along with my team,” Mr. Trump wrote on his social media network Truth Social on Tuesday night, “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.”

Ms. Carroll sued Mr. Trump twice. One lawsuit, which went to trial last May, accused Mr. Trump of raping Ms. Carroll inside the Manhattan department store Bergdorf Goodman in 1996, and of defaming her in October 2022, when he called her claim “a complete con job.” A jury found that Mr. Trump sexually assaulted and defamed Ms. Carroll, and awarded her $5 million dollars. In what may be cold comfort to Mr. Trump, the jury found that while Mr. Trump sexually assaulted Ms. Carroll, he did not rape her.

The judge in January’s jury trial, Lewis Kaplan, however, ruled that sexual assault and rape are the same thing and that Mr. Trump did indeed rape Ms. Carroll.

In that January trial, Ms. Carroll alleged Mr. Trump defamed her with statements he made in June 2019, while he was president, shortly after New York magazine published an excerpt from her book, in which she detailed her claims about the fateful encounter in a dressing room on Bergdorf Goodman’s lingerie floor. Mr. Trump denied the allegations, called them a “disgrace,” and said, Ms. Carroll was not his “type,” effectively branding the journalist an unattractive liar. A jury awarded Ms. Carroll a baffling $ 83.3 million for these damages.               

Mr. Trump’s lead defense attorney, Alina Habba, told reporters after the verdict that she was proud to represent the former president and would continue to do so in the appeal. “We did not win today,” she said last Friday, “but we will win.”   

On Monday, Ms. Habba filed a letter to the judge, who presided over both cases, Lewis Kaplan. She cited a recent New York Post article, which claimed that the judge had a “mentor” relationship with Ms. Carroll’s lead lawyer, Roberta Kaplan, when they briefly worked together at the same law firm in the 1990s. Thus, establishing a conflict of interest. 

On Tuesday, Ms. Kaplan, who is not related to the judge, fired back with her own letter, calling the “mentor-mentee relationship” a “false allegation.”   

“I have no recollection from that time period of ever interacting with Your Honor on a case, participating with Your Honor in a client or case-related meeting, or attending a court proceeding with Your Honor. In fact, I remember no direct interaction from that time period with Your Honor at all,” Ms. Kaplan asserted. She referenced the large size of the firm, and that the future judge was a lead litigator, while she was merely a junior associate. 

“While Ms. Habba ends her letter by characterizing this as a ‘troubling matter,’ … what is actually troubling is both the substance and timing of her false accusations of impropriety on the part of E. Jean Carroll’s counsel or the Court,” Ms. Kaplan added and reserved her right to seek sanctions. 

Ms. Habba immediately walked back her allegation, explaining to the judge, in yet another court filing, that “the point of my January 29 letter was to verify whether the information contained in the New York Post article is accurate. Since Ms. Kaplan has now denied that there was ever a mentor-mentee relationship between herself and Your Honor, this issue has seemingly been resolved.” 

In a small footnote at the very bottom of the page, Ms. Habba wrote, “There are, however, various other issues relating to the Court’s conduct, including potential bias hostility towards defense counsel, that will be raised in post-trial motions and on appeal.” 

After Mr. Trump posted that he and “his team” were “interviewing” firms for the appeal, media outlets began reporting that the former president was looking for a “new” lawyer.   

Ms. Habba, who led the defense in January’s courtroom debacle, was often criticized for her behavior in the courtroom by the judge. For example, she did not stand up when she addressed the judge; instead, she spoke to him while seated in her chair. She also did not know, or disregarded, the  procedure the federal judge demanded for objections. Ms. Habba had to be reminded numerous times not to raise objections during cross examinations of witnesses her co-counsel, Michael Madaio, had initially questioned. 

Ms. Habba’s courtroom feud with the judge culminated on the last day of the trial. The defense attorney tried to introduce new evidence for her closing argument, even though both parties had rested their cases the day before. When Ms. Habba did not stop insisting, Judge Kaplan threatened to throw her in jail. 

Ms. Habba was not the only one the judge reprimanded. One time Mr. Trump’s longtime legal adviser, Boris Epshteyn, who also attended the hearings at the Federal Court, and would frequently pass notes to Ms. Habba stood up and tried to address the court. The judge reminded Mr. Epshteyn that without having taken the required bar exam for the district court, he was not licensed to argue in the courtroom.  

The judge and Mr. Trump had their own share of confrontations when the former president was in the courtroom. Mr. Trump was furious that the judge ruled that Ms. Carroll’s allegations of sexual assault was proven fact, and that Mr. Trump could not defend himself against them on the stand. When Mr. Trump made comments audible to the jury, or disobeyed the judge’s instructions during his brief testimony, or when he walked out of the courtroom in the middle of his opponent’s closing argument the day the jury deliberated the verdict, media outlets reported  that Ms. Habba did not control her client.

Forbes recently published a list of lawyers, who withdrew from Mr. Trump’s myriad legal cases in the last two years. The article cites a total of 18 attorneys quitting from November 2020 to January 2024, related to eight separate court cases Mr. Trump was and continues to be involved in. 

But on Wednesday, Ms. Habba released a statement that she will continue to represent Mr. Trump in the case. “Hiring a separate firm to handle the appellate process is a normal step in a case of this nature,” Ms. Habba told ABC News, adding that her team will work with the new firm as the appeal proceeds.

An attorney familiar with Mr. Trump’s cases told the Sun on Wednesday that, “not only would it not be unusual for a defendant facing a judgment of that magnitude to seek an appellate specialist, it would be expected.” 

Ms. Habba, a 40 year-young attorney from New Jersey and mother of three, is currently the chief legal spokesperson for Mr. Trump, and the general counsel to Mr. Trump’s Save America political action committee. She has helped defend Mr. Trump, his former chief financial officer, Allen Weisselberg, and former Trump Organization controller Jeff McConney, in the recent civil fraud case brought by New York’s attorney general, Letitia James. She also represented the former president in his $100 million lawsuit against the New York Times and Mr. Trump’s estranged niece, Mary Trump. 

In an interview on PBD Podcast, Ms. Habba said that she has “faith in the Supreme Court,” and that all of Mr. Trump’s cases would eventually lead up to the Supreme Court. “As long as they stay firm, I have no fear,” Ms. Habba said, “because I will not win every case.” She added, “but I need the Supreme Court to be the one that has the reason, the one that holds America together right now.”

Legal observers widely agree that the various civil and criminal cases against Mr. Trump, may end up before the Nine, three of whom Mr. Trump appointed.

Campaign finance records filed on Wednesday revealed that Mr. Trump has relied on campaign donations to pay for his legal bills, which exceeded $50 million dollars in 2023. One of Mr. Trump’s fundraising groups, Save America PAC, listed $24.3 million for “legal consulting” in the last six months of 2023, according to the federal election filings. 

The campaign records also showed that Mr. Trump’s main super PAC, MAGA Inc., spent more money than it raised, as did his official campaign. But as grim as this may seem, Mr. Trump’s court dramas have, so far, animated his supporters to donate more. After Mr. Trump’s mug shot was released in August at Fulton County, Georgia, where he was criminally charged with allegedly interfering with the 2020 election, Mr. Trump raised $4.2 million online in a single day, the highest amount he raised online in a single day in 2023.

Mr. Trump’s legal expenses may soon face another epic blow. Any day now, Judge Engoron, who presides over the civil fraud case, will issue his damages verdict, having already found that the Trump Organization committed fraud. New York’s attorney general has asked for over $370 million. 

In order to appeal these verdicts, Mr. Trump needs to either pay the full amount to the courts, where the money is held while the appeals play out, a process that can take years. Or he could secure a bond. 

But bonds require Mr. Trump to find financial institutions, willing to lend him the money, and that may include deposits, collateral, interest and fees. 

Even if Mr. Trump is one of few people who could actually pay these colossal damages, dealing with the maneuverings is no easy task. Especially as another case nears: the criminal case brought by New York’s District Attorney Alvin Bragg regarding pay-offs to the porn star Stormy Daniels, which may begin, as scheduled, at the end of March. Mr. Trump is facing three other criminal indictments in Florida, Washington D.C. and Georgia.     

On Tuesday, the former President wrote in his Truth Social post, “Any lawyer who takes a TRUMP CASE is either “CRAZY,” or a TRUE AMERICAN PATRIOT. I will make my decision soon!’”