Alina Habba’s “shocking” courtroom antics in Donald Trump’s civil defamation trial showcase just what kind of client the former president makes, a legal expert contends.
Former U.S. Attorney Joyce Vance professed herself stunned at the blustering blunders Habba made as she cross-examined E. Jean Carroll, the writer Trump has been found liable of sexually abusing in the 1990s and defaming by denying the attack.
“It’s shocking that a former president is represented by a lawyer who doesn’t seem to know her way around a courtroom," Vance writes in her substack. “He is so toxic that most of the good lawyers won’t touch him.”
Vance focuses on Habba’s repeated arguments with federal Judge Lewis Kaplan over pretrial rules that, she said, are in Trump's best interests for her to obey.
Habba’s juvenile retorts are only serving to antagonize Kaplan, who at one point was forced to “take pity” and explain how to conduct a cross-examination and submit evidence, Vance said.
“You don’t, under any circumstances, say, ‘I don’t like to be spoken to that way, your honor,’ as though this is high school, and you’re dismissing the girls who aren’t cool,” Vance writes. “Habba’s display is embarrassing."
The person who should be embarrassed, and worried, is Trump, Vance writes. She notes there is no limit on how much the jury can award Carroll in punitive damages.
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“Some people have opined that Trump’s behavior is a political stunt,” writes Vance. “Perhaps. But he has a lot of money on the line here. Antagonizing the jury doesn’t seem like the best of choices.”
The former U.S. Attorney believes Trump doesn’t understand the effect he’s having on the jury, and Habba is too inexperienced an attorney to send the dire message home.
If true, Vance writes, Trump’s toxic behavior foretells trouble ahead in his four criminal cases linked to election interference, classified documents and hush money payments to a porn star.
“Juries don't reward this kind of behavior in defendants,” Vance concludes. “If this is how Trump behaves in the criminal cases, it bodes poorly for him there.”
