Alina Habba Corrected by Attorneys Over Supreme Court Remarks

Donald Trump’s lawyer Alina Habba has been criticized by legal experts for suggesting the judge in his New York trial is not following “due process” after he rejected the former president’s request to attend an upcoming Supreme Court hearing.

Speaking to Fox News’ Sean Hannity, Habba hit out at Judge Juan Merchan for preventing “due process” after he told Trump on the first day of his falsifying business records trial that he would not allow the Republican to miss the criminal proceedings to sit in for oral arguments on presidential immunity at the Supreme Court on April 25.

Under New York state law, Trump must attend the entirety of his trial, which is expected to last around six to eight weeks, unless he gets permission from the judge to not attend certain days. Trump also requested absence at the trial in New York to attend his youngest son Barron’s high school graduation ceremony in May. Merchan has yet to decide on that request.

The presumptive GOP presidential nominee was expected to attend a hearing at the Supreme Court on whether he can cite presidential immunity to dismiss the federal charges against him over his alleged criminal attempts to overturn the results of the 2020 election.

“Not even allowing a person due process, the right to go sit in front of the Supreme Court and hear a case that determines many lawsuits that are currently against President Trump on grounds for immunity,” Habba, who is not representing Trump in the criminal trial, said on Monday.

In response, legal experts criticized Habba for apparently suggesting that attending a Supreme Court hearing is a legal requirement guaranteed for someone under due process.

Arkansas-based attorney Shane Ethridge posted on X, formerly Twitter, while sharing a clip of Habba’s remarks: “Watching an oral argument isn’t due process. They just throw words out and hope somebody is dumb enough to accept it as being a correct statement.”

Ron Filipkowski, a former federal prosecutor and frequent Trump critic, wrote: “That is not what due process means. Are we sure she went to law school? That’s taught like week one.”

Georgia State University College of Law professor Anthony Michael Kreis added: “One would hope a lawyer would know that due process does not include attending an oral argument at the United States Supreme Court.”

Responding to the criticism, Habba told Newsweek: “Having the right to attend Court proceedings when you are a defendant in cases which hinge on such a critical decision such as immunity is a right no one should be deprived of.”

Trump has pleaded not guilty to 34 felony counts of falsifying business records in relation to so-called “hush money” he arranged for his former lawyer Michael Cohen to pay adult film star Stormy Daniels to keep an alleged affair she had with Trump a secret ahead of the 2016 election. The money was listed in Trump’s company records as “legal fees,” which prosecutors have argued was part of an unlawful attempt to influence the outcome of the 2016 presidential race. Trump admits reimbursing Cohen but denies having an affair with Daniels.

Speaking outside the Manhattan courtroom on Monday, Trump hit out at Merchan for not allowing him to attend the upcoming Supreme Court hearing on his presidential immunity defense argument.

“This is something that we’ve been waiting for a long time, and the judge, of course, is not going to allow us—he’s a very conflicted judge—and he’s not going to allow us to go to that,” Trump said.

“He won’t allow me to leave here for half a day to D.C. and go before the United States Supreme Court, because he thinks he’s superior, I guess, to the Supreme Court.”

Trump said that it “looks like the judge will not let me go to the graduation of my son,” despite Merchan not yet deciding the matter.

Jury selection for the historic trial will continue on Tuesday.