Attorney Roberta Kaplan - who represented E. Jean Carroll in her defamatory case against Donald Trump - has made further allegations about the former president following her victory in the courtroom.
Back in 2019, Carroll - a longtime advice columnist - penned a story in New York Magazine accusing the former POTUS of sexually assaulting her in a department store dressing room in the mid-1990s. Trump - who was in the Oval Office at the time of the publication - immediately denied the allegations, calling the 80-year-old journalist a "whack job" and alleging that he had never met her, as reported by CBS News.
Following Carroll's claims, the 77-year-old continuously repeatedly attacked and defamed her in social media posts, public appearances, and even in court. However, courts have since sided with Carroll.
In the first trial, which went underway in May 2023, a jury found Trump liable for defamation and sexual abuse and awarded Carroll $5 million. The second trial was then set up for the jury to determine how much compensation was meant to account for the harm they found his comments had done to her reputation and emotional well-being.
After a contentious two-week civil trial in a federal courtroom in Manhattan last month, the nine-member jury ordered the ex-president to pay the writer a staggering $18.3 million in compensatory damages and $65 million in punitive damages.
However, the controversy has not ended there.
Now, Kaplan has claimed that Trump threw documents across a table and abruptly left the room during a legal deposition at Mar-a-Lago.
She claims that the dispute arose after Kaplan rejected Trump's request to work through a lunch break and informed the former POTUS that lunch was being provided her her.
Kaplan shared the details of the alleged encounter on the George Conway Explains it All (to Sarah Longwell) podcast. She recounted the moment when Trump, visibly frustrated, asked how they would manage lunch arrangements during the deposition at Mar-a-Lago.
"And then you could kind of see the wheel spinning in his brain. You could really almost see it," Kaplan told Longwell and Conway. "And he said, ‘Well, you’re here in Mar-a-Lago. What do you think you’re going to do for lunch? Where are you going to get lunch?’"
Kaplan then says she told Trump that his attorneys had "graciously offered to provide" her team with lunch — which is a common civil practice between opposing legal teams.
"At which point there was a huge pile of documents, exhibits, sitting in front of him, and he took the pile and he just threw it across the table. And stormed out of the room,” Kaplan shared, adding that Trump specifically yelled at his lawyer Alina Habba for providing them lunch.
"He really yelled at Alina for that. He was so mad at Alina," Kaplan claimed.
Kaplan also says she rejected the former president’s request to work through a lunch break because he believed the deposition to be a waste of time.
The incident occurred in the midst of a lawsuit alleging Trump's involvement with a fraudulent marketing company, per CNN. While the legal battle reached a resolution last month - with a federal judge dismissing the suit - the deposition's lunchtime dispute has since garnered attention following Kaplan's podcast appearance.
In addition to the lunchtime incident, Kaplan revealed another moment from the deposition's conclusion. As she announced the end of her questioning, Trump made an obscure comment, saying, "See you next Tuesday." The phrase is commonly used as a derogatory coded euphemism... and Kaplan initially found it puzzling, as their next meeting was scheduled for a Wednesday.
"We come in the room and I say, ‘I’m done asking questions’ and immediately I hear from the other side, ‘Off the record. Off the record. Off the record.’ So they must have planned it," Kaplan told the hosts. "And [Trump] looks at me from across the table and he says, ‘See you next Tuesday.'"
Kaplan's colleagues later explained the intended meaning behind Trump's comment, and she admitted that had she been aware of it at the time, her reaction might have been different.
"I wasn’t in on the joke, so I had no idea," she explained. "Then we get into the car and my colleagues are like, ‘Robbie, do you know what that means?’ And I’m like, ‘No, what are you talking about?’ They tell me and I’m like, oh my God, thank God I didn’t know because had I known, I for sure would have gotten angry. "
CNN reported that it had sought comments from representatives for both Trump and Alina Habba regarding the deposition and subsequent revelations.
Reflecting on what her recent victories have meant for her career, Kaplan described last month's verdict as a defining moment.
When asked which victory felt more significant – winning the defamation case against Trump or successfully challenging the Defense of Marriage Act in 2013, ultimately leading to the Supreme Court's decision in favor of same-sex marriage – Kaplan pointed to her recent triumph.
"I spent my whole life devoted to the principle that we have a rule of law and we have a judicial system that works," Kaplan said. "And that’s what makes us a constitutional democracy, that’s — at least until recently — was to be admired worldwide. And it was starting, I mean, it is in times looking like that may not be true.
"This case validated that at least as of now, we still have all that."
