Alina Habba, Donald Trump’s lead defense attorney in his business fraud trial, claimed that the New York judge presiding over the case “executed” the former president’s legal team before the trial even began.
Trump is facing a $250 million lawsuit filed by New York Attorney General Letitia James over allegations that the former president inflated his net worth by billions of dollars to obtain financial benefits. Trump’s two eldest sons, Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump, as well as employees attached to The Trump Organization, are also listed as defendants in the case.
The former president was called to the witness stand to testify in the case on Monday, where prosecutors pressed Trump on the value of his properties and his role in their appraisals. Judge Arthur Engoron, who is presiding over the case, has already ruled that Trump and his co-defendants are liable for fraud, meaning the trial is concerning how much the Trump family will be ordered to pay in damages.
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Monday’s hearing included several heated exchanges between Engoron and Trump’s legal team, including at one point when the judge asked Trump attorney Chris Kise to “control” his client as the former president gave long-winded responses to the prosecutors’ questions.
In another exchange, Habba stood up to defend Trump, stating that the Engoron needed to “hear what he has to say.” The judge quickly scolded Habba, telling her, “I’m not here to hear what he has to say. He’s here to answer questions.”
During an interview Tuesday with conservative commentator Charlie Kirk, which appeared on the far-right network Real America’s Voice, Habba said that she grew “frustrated” by Engoron “cutting my client off.”
“He’s not interested in us wasting his time, he’s said that repeatedly,” Habba continued, referring to Engoron. “He tells us to move things along repeatedly, and he was cutting off the former President sitting on the witness stand, cooperating, and being a civil, decent defendant who was subpoenaed to come here and get off the campaign trail.”
Kirk went on to ask Habba if Engoron was acting as “judge, jury and executioner” in the case, given that the trial does not include a jury. Habba has been blamed for not requesting that a jury be used in the civil trial, but the Trump attorney previously argued that the case was filed under New York Executive Law 63 (12), where she claims a jury is not generally required.
“[Engoron] executed us before we walked into the courtroom,” Habba told Kirk Tuesday. “He granted a motion before we started the trial saying that we were liable, and he is firm on that.”
“We really are in a banana republic in there,” she added. “So, he already said we’re guilty of fraud. He is now putting on a show, wasting taxpayer dollars, wasting President Trump’s money, frankly, because all he wants to do now is get bad evidence out and suppress anybody that’s going to put in good evidence. So it’s clearly political.”
Trump has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing in the accusations against him attached to the case, and maintains that James’ lawsuit is a political “witch hunt.”
Newsweek reached out to the public information office at the New York State Unified Coury System for comment.
Several legal experts speculated that Trump’s testimony may have hurt his defense in the case, including MSNBC host and attorney Katie Phang, who wrote in a post to X, formerly Twitter, on Monday that the former president made a “critical admission” regarding his financial statements to Deutsche Bank.
Other experts described Trump’s testimony as “clownish,” such as former federal prosecutor Glenn Kirschner, who wrote on X Monday that the former president’s “combative, insulting, and non-responsive testimony is a sign of weakness, not strength. It’s a sign of fear & desperation, not confidence.”
Meanwhile, Palm Beach County State Attorney Dave Aronberg told Newsweek, “Former President Trump’s combative, rambling trial testimony did not help himself with Judge Engoron. But Trump’s audience was not the trial judge. He was playing to his MAGA base, which ate up his defiance.”
Aronberg continued, “Trump’s performance was also directed at the appellate courts, whom he hopes will overturn Judge Engoron’s rulings based on judicial bias. That’s why Trump seemed to bait the judge during his testimony. Although Judge Engoron grew irritated and made an occasional snarky comment, he didn’t seem to say anything that would put his upcoming rulings in jeopardy.”
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.