Former president Donald Trump’s lawyer Alina Habba suddenly appeared at Trump’s criminal hush money trial on Monday.
Per pool report, Habba was seen in the hallway outside the courtroom as the former president was in court for the second week of his trial as opening statements in the case began.
Context
Trump, the presumptive 2024 Republican presidential nominee, became the first former president in U.S. history to stand trial in a criminal case last week. Following an investigation by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office, Trump was indicted in March 2023 on charges of falsifying business records relating to hush money paid to adult film star Stormy Daniels during his 2016 presidential campaign.
Daniels alleges that she had an affair with Trump in 2006, which he has denied. Trump has pleaded not guilty to all charges and said the case against him is politically motivated.
What We Know
Habba, who represented Trump as lead attorney in the E. Jean Carroll defamation lawsuit, is still among the leading voices for the former president, but this time she’s taking her role outside the courtroom.
Introduced as Trump’s “legal spokesperson,” Habba told The Benny Show, a politically conservative podcast, last week that she couldn’t represent Trump in his criminal case because she didn’t practice that type of law, but that her absence in court gave her the opportunity to get his message out through other platforms
“Obviously, you know, being a type A person, I wish I was a criminal attorney but I’m not,” Habba said. “But the great news is that, then I can do this and let everybody know what is actually happening.”
“I plan, for the next six weeks, to truly just be spitting the truth and giving people facts they may not be hearing while he’s in court,” she added.
On Monday, at about 11:57 am, per a pool report, Trump’s attorneys Chris Kise and Habba were seen in the hallway outside the courtroom as well as Trump’s aide Jason Miller.
According to the pool report, Habba spoke on the case, but did not take any questions as she called Trump’s trials a “disgrace to the American judicial system.”
“The fact that we have two courts not one, criminal and civil, being used against one man because they cannot beat him in the polls is a disgrace to the American judicial system. You should not have two teams of lawyers here today. You should not even be here today, because you didn’t know is the epitome of a witch hunt,” Habba said.
Brendan McDermid-Pool/Getty Images
Views
Speaking to podcaster Benny Johnson, Habba also previously called the trial proceedings in Manhattan the “ultimate sham of a case” and suggested that the charges were politically motivated against Trump.
However, Habba has also faced significant criticisms over her courtroom conduct when she served as the former president’s lead attorney in the Carroll defamation lawsuit, which resulted in an $83.3 million jury verdict against Trump. Legal analysts argued her behavior was a result of her inexperience as a trial attorney.
In January attorney Harry Litman, who previously served as a U.S. attorney for the Western District of Pennsylvania and deputy assistant attorney general at the Department of Justice (DOJ) during the Clinton administration, discussed Habba’s courtroom skills by calling attention to what he says are a “comedy of bumbling errors,” adding that she “tussled” with Judge Lewis Kaplan on the case.
“They’ve been a comedy of bumbling errors for many months, but she does seem to be perfectly chosen to be the wrong lawyer in the courtroom. She got generally mocked for not having the basic skills, which I think is true, but more than that, she tussled with the judge. she tussled with, you know, everything about the proceedings. She was Trumpian,” he said.
Newsweek has reached out to Habba via email for comment
What’s Next?
Trump’s second week of trial has begun with opening statements and will continue with testimony from David Pecker, the former chairman of the National Enquirer’s parent company. Pecker was allegedly present at a meeting with Trump in 2015 about how the National Enquirer could help him get elected in the 2016 presidential election.
That allegedly led to the Enquirer being used as a front by Trump while he was trying to silence women with whom he had allegedly had affairs.
Uncommon Knowledge
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.