Alina Habba, lawyer for ex-President Donald Trump, denounced the U.S. justice system, specifically calling out judges presiding over the various cases against her boss.
“I have never been treated the way I’m treated when I walk into court and I say I represent President Trump,” Habba, currently Trump’s legal spokesperson for his criminal hush-money trial in New York City, told Newsweek in a phone interview on Tuesday night.
Habba earlier on Tuesday during an interview with Newsmax host Carl Higbie voiced her opposition to treatment received by Trump and his defense team. Habba expressed her concerns shortly after another attorney for the former president was chided by New York State Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan in the courtroom during Trump’s criminal trial in New York, which began last week.
Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee for president in the 2024 election, was previously placed under a gag order after attacking Merchan’s daughter in a slew of posts on social media. Merchan is overseeing the former president’s hush-money case in which Trump faces 34 felony counts of falsifying business records regarding a payment made to adult-film star Stormy Daniels during his 2016 presidential election campaign.
In April 2023, the former president was indicted by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, who said Trump “fraudulently falsified New York business records to conceal crimes that hid damaging information from the voting public during the 2016 presidential election.”
Trump has pleaded not guilty to all charges while repeatedly claiming that all counts against him were triggered by attempts to interfere with his reelection campaign.
During Tuesday’s hearing focused on whether Trump had violated the gag order, Merchan told the former president’s lawyer, Todd Blanche, that “you’re losing all credibility right now.”
Habba told Newsweek that she’s witnessed and experienced what she described as unfair treatment from judges toward attorneys who defend Trump. Habba faced an onslaught of public scrutiny when she represented Trump in his second E. Jean Carroll defamation trial. On several occasions, Judge Lewis Kaplan, who presided over the civil trial, scolded Habba during court sessions.
“Realistically, what happened today with Todd is something I’ve seen no matter who defends President Trump,” she said. “The judges are immediately dismissive and unwilling to consider any facts or evidence.
While Habba said she feels that Trump’s attorneys are unfairly targeted, Carroll’s lawyer, Roberta Kaplan said she repeatedly saw Habba “yelling” in court. Kaplan’s fellow counsel Shawn Crowley said the Trump attorney acted less like a lawyer when her client was there.
Newsweek reached out via email on Tuesday night to former federal prosecutor and legal analyst Glenn Kirschner for insight and comment on Habba’s claims.
Kirschner, a vocal Trump critic, has previously blamed Habba’s defense of the former president during his defamation lawsuit for taking him “down in flames.”
Habba faced a fresh wave of criticism from multiple legal experts for suggesting last week that Merchan is not following “due process” after he rejected the former president’s request to attend a coming U.S. Supreme Court hearing on Trump’s presidential immunity claims.
Habba told Newsmax that the gag order placed on Trump is “disgusting” and unconstitutional. During the nearly four-minute segment shared on X, formerly Twitter, the attorney also condemned the behavior of judges presiding over the former president’s legal battles.
“This is the same methodology that judges have done with me and the left-wing media, they’ll run with it,” Habba said. “They try and make attorneys on the team look or seem like they don’t know what they’re doing. They know that the press is in the room and they kind of play into it.”
Habba continued: “I think it’s intentional. I know it is, they do it. They’ve done it to me, and they try and berate and ridicule the attorneys and it’s really pathetic.”
