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

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

Roberta Kaplan — the lead attorney who helped clinch a whopping $83 million verdict for Carroll last week — fired back at claims 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, according to the letter.

“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.

Trump lawyer Alina Habba Monday demanded answers about the alleged potential conflict of interest.

Habba told The Post the alleged connection was “insane and so incestuous,” and said she would use the fact as a basis for Trump’s appeal of the case.

Kaplan, in her response Tuesday, said the timing of the “false accusations” emerging was “troubling.”

“From the very start of the recently concluded trial, Donald Trump and Ms. Habba have pushed a false narrative of judicial bias so that they could characterize any jury verdict against Trump as the product of a corrupt system,” the lawyer wrote.

Kaplan also said an anonymous source cited by The Post in a report Sunday, “clearly has a very flawed memory about events that occurred three decades ago.”

The source – a former partner at the firm – claimed “Lew was like her mentor,” referring to Judge Kaplan.

Habba responded to Kaplan’s letter, saying the opposing lawyer made “inflammatory and unwarranted accusations,” and clarified that she simply wanted to know whether the claim was true.

“Since Ms. Kaplan has now denied that there was ever a mentor-mentee relationship between herself and Your Honor, this issue has seemingly been resolved,” Habba said in a letter Tuesday.

On Friday, a nine-person jury awarded Carroll the massive verdict following a week-long trial in which her side claimed Trump, 77, ruined her journalistic reputation when he said he’d never met her after she came forward in 2019 with accusations that he sexually assaulted her in a Bergdorf Goodman fitting room in 1996.

Trump’s lawyers argued that the former “Ask E. Jean” advice columnist relished in the public spotlight after going public and that the 2024 GOP presidential hopeful’s statements made from the White House in June 2019 were merely to defend his name and part of his right to free speech.

After the verdict came down Friday afternoon, Trump ripped the outcome as “Absolutely ridiculous!” in a post on Truth Social.

The Big Apple journalist. in an appearance on “The Rachel Maddow Show” on MSNBC Monday night, quipped that she would use the cash awarded to her in the case on a new wardrobe.

A separate jury last year found the real estate mogul liable for sexually abusing Carroll and awarded her $5 million. Trump is appealing that case.

A rep for Roberta Kaplan declined to comment beyond the court papers Tuesday, while Habba didn’t immediately return a request for comment.