Roberta Kaplan Was E. Jean Carroll’s Lawyer and Trump’s Nemesis

The assembly turned ugly quick.

In October 2022, Roberta Kaplan flew to Donald Trump’s property, Mar-a-Lago, in Florida, to query him beneath oath within the defamation lawsuit that her consumer, the author E. Jean Carroll, had filed towards him after she accused him of sexually assaulting her.

“She’s not my kind,” Mr. Trump mentioned when he was requested if he raped Ms. Carroll within the mid-Nineteen Nineties in a dressing room on the Bergdorf Goodman division retailer in New York.

Then he shrugged, checked out Ms. Kaplan and pointed at her.

“You wouldn’t be a alternative of mine both, to be sincere with you,” he mentioned, in keeping with a transcript of the deposition. “I might not, beneath any circumstances, have any curiosity in you. I’m sincere after I say it.”

She started one other query, then paused and reminded him, “I’m an lawyer.”

That early skirmish was a part of a battle that started in 2019 when the lawsuit was filed; it culminated in a Manhattan courtroom on Friday, when a jury of seven males and two girls determined that Mr. Trump ought to pay Ms. Carroll $83.3 million for defaming her.

It was a conflict of two New Yorkers, each of them formidable combatants and talkers, however in several methods and from completely different worlds.

Mr. Trump, 77, has a libertine previous, a salesman’s aptitude and a rare intuition for insult. Ms. Kaplan, 57, an openly gay lawyer who married her wife in Toronto in 2005, is methodical and disciplined.

However they’re each shrewd, aggressive energy gamers of their respective realms, and unusually deft at utilizing the press. They depend on their very own outsize confidence to realize their goals, making their showdowns often charged — and tinged with drama.

She has represented main firms and gained the groundbreaking 2013 Supreme Court docket case that granted same-sex married {couples} federal recognition for the primary time. She has mentioned that, as a lawyer, “I really am like a dog with a bone” — by no means letting go as soon as her tooth are engaged.

Within the five-hour deposition at Mar-a-Lago, Mr. Trump referred to as her “a political operative,” “a shame.” When she requested him if he had been referring to Ms. Carroll when he mentioned in June 2019 that individuals who make false accusations of rape ought to “pay dearly,” he mentioned sure, smiling barely.

“And I feel their attorneys, too,” Mr. Trump responded. “I feel the attorneys like you’re a huge a part of it, as a result of you realize it’s a phony case.”

Ms. Kaplan didn’t reply.

Within the months that adopted, Mr. Trump and Ms. Kaplan would hurl accusations at one another, primarily by way of courtroom filings, public statements and media appearances. The trial, which started on Jan. 16 in Manhattan, was an opportunity to see them each in a crowded federal courtroom.

And it offered a preview of what this uncommon yr in politics and historical past will current to the American public. As a former president and present candidate within the 2024 election, Mr. Trump faces 4 prison instances, a lot of them sprawling and unpredictable, which he’s seizing as a stage for his tried comeback.

That makes the attorneys, judges and prosecutors — folks like Fani Willis, a Georgia district lawyer; Jack Smith, a federal particular counsel; and Tanya S. Chutkan, the decide overseeing the trial of his function within the Capitol assault — extra than simply figures in authorized proceedings. As an alternative, Mr. Trump elevates them as opponents and tries to make them caricatures to mobilize his most fervent supporters.

Thus far, Ms. Kaplan is the one lawyer to have secured not one, however two verdicts towards Mr. Trump.

“This win is due to Robbie Kaplan and her dazzling group,” Ms. Carroll mentioned in an announcement late on Friday.

Final Might, one other jury awarded Ms. Carroll greater than $5 million, discovering that Mr. Trump had sexually abused her after which defamed her by calling her a liar.

Earlier than representing Ms. Carroll, Ms. Kaplan was finest identified for representing Edith Windsor, the homosexual rights activist whose problem of the Protection of Marriage Act was considered one of two landmark instances that led the Supreme Court docket to grant same-sex married {couples} federal recognition in 2013.

However most of Ms. Kaplan’s profession has been targeted on company legislation. She spent years representing shoppers such because the Minnesota Vikings soccer group, JP Morgan Chase & Firm and T-Cell.

A outstanding voice within the #MeToo motion, Ms. Kaplan has additionally defended shoppers towards accusations of sexual abuse. In 2020, she represented Goldman Sachs Group when the company was sued over accusations that the financial institution’s basic counsel had lined up sexual misconduct claims towards its head of litigation.

Ms. Kaplan, a native of Cleveland, has mentioned that she all the time knew she can be a lawyer: She was a born talker, generally to the exasperation of her household. She as soon as recalled her grandmother telling her when she was younger: “Robbie, you realize I really like you, however are you able to simply be quiet for like three minutes?”

“And I mentioned one thing like, ‘No, Grandma, I can’t. I simply can’t assist myself. I really like to speak,’” Ms. Kaplan mentioned.

Mr. Trump can’t assist himself from speaking both. A son of a Jamaica Estates developer, he burnished his picture as a playboy within the Eighties, making himself a fixture at evening spots and within the tabloids. As a businessman, he exaggerated his real estate achievements, taking his mogul’s picture nationwide because of actuality tv. As president and a candidate, he belittled political opponents and demonized the media, to the delight of his followers. And when Ms. Carroll accused him of rape in 2019, he referred to as her a liar making an attempt to promote a ebook.

On the finish of the deposition in 2022, Mr. Trump sought to decrease Ms. Kaplan, shrugging her off as a shill of the Democratic Social gathering. He referred to as her a pal of Andrew Cuomo’s, an obvious jab at her function in advising him when he was accused of sexual harassment throughout his tenure as New York governor. The entanglement prompted her to resign from Time’s Up, a corporation based to battle sexual abuse and promote gender equality.

“I act appropriately with girls,” Mr. Trump mentioned confidently. “Let’s see how this all seems.”

However through the trial, it appeared that Ms. Kaplan had gotten to Mr. Trump. He shook his head in courtroom repeatedly and scoffed throughout her direct examination of Ms. Carroll. She watched placidly when the decide threatened to throw Mr. Trump out of the courtroom after considered one of her co-counsels, Shawn Crowley, complained that the previous president was making derisive feedback about Ms. Carroll inside earshot of the jury.

He delivered tirades at a information convention through the trial. She by no means raised her voice in courtroom however was fast to play clips of that information convention to the jury.

On Friday, throughout her closing argument, he had lastly had sufficient.

Seated a number of ft away from Ms. Kaplan, he shifted in his chair when she mentioned the hate that Ms. Carroll acquired was the inevitable results of Mr. Trump’s lies. He scoffed when Ms. Kaplan mentioned that Mr. Trump’s legal professionals had the nerve to counsel that Ms. Carroll ought to be pleased about the eye.

And when Ms. Kaplan mentioned that Mr. Trump acted like the foundations and legal guidelines didn’t apply to him, Mr. Trump stood up and walked out of the courtroom.

The show of mood brought on courtroom onlookers to stare in disbelief on the former president’s breach of decorum. The decide famous for the document that Mr. Trump had left.

However Ms. Kaplan continued her closing, targeted solely on the jury and ignored the previous president.

“It doesn’t matter what Donald Trump thinks, and it doesn’t matter what Donald Trump says, the foundations do apply to him,” she mentioned.

Lower than seven hours later, after the decision was learn to a packed courtroom, Ms. Carroll grasped Ms. Kaplan’s fingers and so they nodded on the jurors. After the jurors left, the 2 girls hugged one another tightly.

Mr. Trump was not there. His motorcade had sped away effectively earlier than the jury returned with its verdict.