Alina Habba’s New Hampshire Appearance Sparks Speculation

Alina Habba’s appearance at a Donald Trump rally sparked speculation on social media after the former president’s defamation trial was postponed because of concerns about COVID.

Habba, Trump’s legal spokesperson and his representative in the case brought by former Elle columnist E. Jean Carroll, said on Monday she had been exposed to the virus, reporting a fever within the previous 48 hours. U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan later ordered the trial to be postponed until Thursday.

Kaplan said one of the nine jurors had reported feeling unwell and was told to return home and take a COVID test.

MSNBC’s legal analyst Lisa Rubin made clear she believed Habba didn’t lie about feeling unwell, and said “someone else” who had been present in the court may have tested positive.

Habba said she had felt under the weather after spending time with her parents, who both had COVID.

“I am not insinuating Habba lied. At all,” Rubin said on X. “I take her at her word. She said she had been exposed and was feeling feverish over the weekend; she also represented on Monday that she tested negative that morning.

“What I am suggesting, however is that *someone else* who has been a regular courtroom presence has COVID, without which there would be little reason for a three-day delay.”

Rubin didn’t make clear who she was referring to and didn’t explicitly mention Trump. Habba and co-counsel Mike Madaio tested negative for COVID in court.

Delay Until After Primary

Ron Filipkowski, editor-in-chief of the independent news network Meidas Touch, claimed Habba “said she felt sick Monday and had been exposed to COVID to get his trial postponed so he wouldn’t have to testify until after the NH primary.” She was spotted at Trump’s campaign event in the state.

Trump won the New Hampshire Republican presidential primary on January 23 with over 50 percent of the vote.

Joyce Vance, an attorney, questioned on X how many people Trump had shaken hands with after possibly being exposed to the virus.

Newsweek approached Habba’s law firm and a Trump spokesperson via email out of hours for comment.

Carroll’s lawyer, Roberta Kaplan, no relation to the judge, objected to the postponement. “We would like to get this trial over,” she said.

The former president, who sat with Habba and Madaio in court, indicated he had been happy to attend proceedings before the trial was postponed.

On his Truth Social media platform, he said: “Despite the fact that I was there, on time and on schedule, it was just learned that one of the jurors is, unfortunately, not feeling well, and for that reason, today’s session of the trial, having to do with a woman I know absolutely nothing about, has therefore been cancelled with a new date to be determined.”

Trump says he “never met, saw, or touched” Carroll and has denied sexually assaulting her at a Bergdorf Goodman department store in the 1990s in New York. The trial is to determine how much Trump will have to pay Carroll in damages after a jury found he had defamed and sexually assaulted her.