Alina Habba, an attorney for former President Trump, signaled she is not optimistic the New York courts, where the former president’s hush money trial is taking place, will “do the right thing.”
“But I don’t have hopes really that high at this moment that the New York courts will do the right thing, that the jury will do the right thing,” Habba said in an interview Wednesday on Newsmax’s “Greg Kelly Reports.” “We’re in a blue state, as you know, Greg. And I think everything’s by design.”
“We’re in a case that was eight years old, over the statute of limitations, was denied by [former Manhattan District Attorney] Cy Vance, then brought only after President Trump decided he was going to run for office,” she added.
Habba, who is not representing Trump in his hush money case, has frequently taken shots at the numerous indictments brought against her client. Jury selection for the New York criminal trial ended last week, and witness testimony began this week.
Trump is charged with 34 counts of falsifying business records in connection to reimbursements made to his then-fixer, Michael Cohen, for a payment made to adult film actress Stormy Daniels in 2016 to stay quiet about an alleged affair with the former president a decade earlier. Judge Juan Merchan, who is overseeing the case, imposed a gag order against Trump to bar him from attacking witnesses, prosecutors, court staff and the judge’s family.
Habba suggested people take a closer look at the team of prosecutors in the hush money case.
“And like you said, look at how many people they’ve got,” she said. “And I can’t talk about it that, the American — because of the unconstitutional gag order, but I think that we should also take a look at who’s on that team and where that those people came from.”
“It’s very troubling, as you know, and I know you know it well. …. We’re in the fight of our lives at this moment,” she added.
The trial, the first criminal trial of a former or sitting U.S. president in history, will resume Thursday.