Former Trump Attorney Criticizes Lawyer After Jury Orders $83.3 Million Payment in Defamation Case

A former attorney for former President Trump expressed criticism towards his lawyer Alina Habba during a recent CNN interview. The criticism came after a jury ruled that the former president should pay $83.3 million in damages to writer E. Jean Carroll, who accused him of sexual abuse.

During the interview with CNN anchor Kaitlan Collins, Tim Parlatore, the former president’s former attorney, expressed regret over Habba’s representation. He believed that in both trials, the former president was poorly defended and that the outcomes could have been different.

The former president announced his plan to appeal the decision on his new social media platform, Truth Social. He called the verdicts “absolutely ridiculous” and criticized the legal system for being used as a political weapon. He claimed that his First Amendment rights were being taken away and argued that this was not the America he knew.

In a trial held last year, a jury sided with Carroll’s claim that Trump had sexually abused her in the 1990s. U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan later ruled that Trump had defamed Carroll. The recent trial determined the specific amount that the former president owed the writer.

The case revolved around a written statement and comments made by the former president in 2019 when Carroll publicly accused him of sexual abuse.

When asked if the former president should reconsider his current legal team or Habba for the appeal, Parlatore suggested that he shouldn’t have the same lawyer. He explained that having the attorney who tried the case handle the appeal could be inadvisable due to personal biases.