Alina Habba, the lead attorney representing former President Donald Trump in a defamation case brought by journalist E. Jean Carroll, has dropped her questions about whether the judge in the case had a relationship as a "mentor" with Carroll's attorney.
In her initial letter, Habba wrote to U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan with questions about a recent New York Post article claiming that he and Robbie Kaplan, Carroll's lawyer, had worked together at the same law firm during the 1990s, reports The Hill.
Carroll's attorney, who is not related to the judge, threatened sanctions against Habba and said she did not work with him at the firm and did not remember directly interacting with him, as he was a leader at the large firm's litigation department while she was still a junior associate.
Robbie Kaplan responded that Habba characterized the issue as a "troubling matter," but "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."
Habba responded with a new letter to drop the matter, replying 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," she added.
"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," Habba said in a footnote to her letter.
A representative for Habba told Newsmax she will have no further comment on the issue.
The exchanges follow last week's jury verdict to award Carroll $83.3 million in her defamation suit over Trump's denials of her claims that he sexually assaulted her in a department store dressing room about 30 years ago.
The jury's ruling followed legal action filed by Carroll after Trump continued to attack her on social media and elsewhere after a separate jury found him liable last year for sexual abuse and defamation.
Trump says he will appeal the case, with his lawyers saying Judge Kaplan displayed "hostility" toward the former president and frontrunner in the race for the 2024 GOP presidential nomination.