E. Jean Carroll lawyer Roberta Kaplan blasts conflict-of-interest claim against judge in Trump case: ‘Utterly baseless’

E. Jean Carroll’s lawyer on Tuesday blasted as “utterly baseless” a claim that the judge who oversaw the defamation battle between her client and Donald Trump had a conflict of interest.

Roberta Kaplan — the lead attorney who helped clinch a whopping $83 million verdict for Carroll last week — fired back at a “false” accusation that Manhattan federal court Judge Lewis Kaplan (no relation) was like a “mentor” to her when they worked at law firm Paul, Weiss, Rifkin, Wharton & Garrison at the same time in the 1990s.

“I have no recollection from that time period of ever interacting with Your Honor on a case, participating with Your Honor in a client or case-related meeting, or attending a court proceeding with Your Honor,” Kaplan wrote in a letter to the judge.

The 57-year-old attorney said she and Judge Kaplan, 79, did overlap at the white-shoe firm, but for “less than two years” and she couldn’t recall any “direct interaction” with him during that period.

“Needless to say, at no point have we ever had a ‘mentor’ type relationship,” the letter said.

Due to the pair’s lack of contact while working at the firm — Kaplan as a junior associate and the judge as a senior partner — “there was nothing for Your Honor to disclose” in the defamation case, the attorney wrote.