Alina Habba, an attorney for Donald Trump, failed to convince U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan to dismiss a defamation case against her client before he was expected to testify.
On Thursday, Habba made the motion to dismiss after attorneys for E. Jean Carroll rested their case against the former president. Carroll sued Trump for defamation after he denied raping her.
"Without the jury present, Trump's lawyer Alina Habba moves for a judgment throwing out Carroll's case: She says 'President Trump is entitled a judgment as a matter of a law' because Carroll 'failed to establish a causal link' between her claimed damages and Trump’s statements," Josh Russell of Courthouse News reported.
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But Habba's argument seemed muddled at best. She claimed Carroll may have deleted evidence that would have hurt the defense's case. Kaplan expressed confusion.
"You're saying she should be punished because she deleted tweets that would be helpful to her?" Kaplan asked.
"That's not what I'm saying," Habba insisted.
"You're repeating yourself," Kaplan later added.
"Clearly I'm not being heard," Habba griped.
But in the end, Kaplan denied the motion to dismiss.
"The motion is denied," he said.
