Former President Donald Trump is actively seeking a new legal team to handle his appeal in response to the recent decision requiring him to pay $83.3 million to writer E. Jean Carroll for defamation.
Trump announced on Truth Social late Tuesday night that he is currently interviewing multiple law firms to represent him in the appeal, characterizing the case as “one of the most ridiculous and unfair Witch Hunts our Country has ever seen – the defamation Sham.”
In a post on the social media platform, Trump stated, “Any lawyer who takes a TRUMP CASE is either ‘CRAZY,’ or a TRUE AMERICAN PATRIOT. I will make my decision soon!”
Trump’s remarks suggest that Alina Habba, the attorney who handled his original case, may have reduced or no involvement in the upcoming appeal. Despite losing the original case, Trump did not express dissatisfaction with Habba’s work, and it is customary to engage new lawyers qualified for appellate court proceedings.
These developments follow a recent jury decision that awarded Carroll a substantial multimillion-dollar sum in her defamation lawsuit against Trump. Carroll had sued the former president, alleging that he damaged her reputation by denying her rape accusation and criticizing her during his presidential term.
In a separate case last year, Carroll was awarded $5 million for defamation related to Trump’s comments on the same matter. The writer claimed Trump sexually assaulted her during a brief encounter in a New York City department store in 1995 or 1996. She had kept silent about the incident for nearly three decades before revealing it in her memoir in 2019, noting that she had shared the allegation with two friends at the time.