Alina Habba's days could be numbered after 'inexcusable' trial blunders: former prosecutor
Former President Donald Trump is looking at new law firms to represent him in an appeal of the E. Jean Carroll verdict — and that is potentially bad news for his existing attorney who argued the case originally, Alina Habba, said former federal prosecutor Elie Honig on CNN's "The Lead" Wednesday.
Habba's courtroom antics led to constant clashes with Judge Lewis Kaplan, and ultimately the jury ordered Trump to pay $83.3 million in damages over defamatory claims that Carroll lied about her rape accusation to sell books.
"Elie, I also wanted to get your options from the E. Jean Carroll case," said anchor Jake Tapper. "Can you elaborate if there is anything that he thinks she did particularly wrong in the case, given that we only have a couple of hours for the show?"
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"It is definitely not a vote of confidence," said Honig. "Often when a lawyer and a client gets hit with a verdict like that, they do want to bring in a different lawyer to do the appeal."
"Here is my assessment," he continued. "The good news is, she is clearly passionate and believes in her client and she is fairly effective at communicating one simple message. She does not know what she's doing. She cannot even do things that you learn in evidence class, not violate the rules of hearsay."
"The other thing is, maybe this is impossible, she had zero client control." Above all, Honig added, "Allowing her client — again, I don't know who can control this client, but allowing him to walk out during the other side's closing arguments, that is inexcusable and that is reflected in the huge verdict that they got hit with."
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