Victoria Toensing and Joe diGenova told Newsmax on Monday that E. Jean Carroll's defamation lawsuit victory over former President Donald Trump might be short-lived thanks to a series of missteps by the trial court.
On Saturday it was revealed that Lewis Kaplan, the Manhattan federal judge overseeing the Trump trial, and Carroll's attorney Roberta Kaplan, worked together in the 1990s at the same law firm. Trump attorney Alina Habba called the hiding of the relationship, "insane and incestuous," according to the New York Post.
"There's no doubt that this former relationship which probably continues to this day between the judge and the lawyer for E. Jean Carroll should have been disclosed at the beginning of the proceedings," diGenova, a former U.S. attorney in Washington, D.C., said on "American Agenda."
And diGenova said Trump's lawyers should have been allowed to make motions about the relationship had it been revealed.
"It was clearly hidden from the Trump team, and I believe that it will be added to the accumulation of errors committed by the trial counter in this case, and it's going to lead to a reversal," he said.
He clarified that this one oversight alone might not be enough, yet the series of all the other errors Judge Kaplan and the court have made in the trial could very well reverse the verdict.
Toensing, a former deputy assistant DA and diGenova's wife said that from her point of view, the extension of the statute of limitations by one year should be the Trump team's focus on appeal.
"Think about this," she said. "Somebody says you committed misconduct 30 years ago. Well, I can't quite remember the day, I can't even remember the month. That's a violation of due process, and everyone gets to defend themselves."
Toensing concluded, "It leaves a person incapable of a defense."
Carroll was awarded $83.3 million by a Manhattan jury who agreed that Trump had defamed her following her accusation of sexual assault by Trump from 1996. Carroll came forward with the allegations in 2019.
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