Trump lawyer Alina Habba now says Letitia James isn’t that ‘smart’ and her team ‘doesn’t know what they’re talking about’ – after attacking ‘unhinged’ judge who told her to ‘sit down’ during testimony of the former president
Donald Trump’s legal team continued its high-risk strategy by launching a bitter personal attack on New York’s attorney general, following a nail-biting day in court in which the former president and his advisers were repeatedly rebuked by the judge in his $250 million civil fraud lawsuit. .
Trump’s lawyer Alina Habba issued a scathing assessment of Letitia James, who brought the case, during a TV appearance.
‘She’s just not that smart. I am sorry, I must say, and I have seen their case,” Habba said on Newsmax, hours after leaving court.
‘I’ve seen their lawyers. They don’t know what they’re talking about.’
Earlier she described Judge Arthur Engoron called him “unhinged” for slamming the table and “yelling” at her to sit down during the former president’s testimony.
‘She’s just not that smart. I’m sorry, I have to say and I’ve seen their case,” Alina Habba said of New York Attorney General Letitia James (right) during a Newsmax appearance
It happened during an extraordinary day in court as Trump took the stand.
He was repeatedly warned not to treat the court like an audience, while personally criticizing a judge he said was biased against him and the attorney general, whom he derided as a “political hack.”
“This is the opposite of fraud,” he said, directing the accusations at James. “The fraudster is her.”
The civil lawsuit in New York is just one of several legal challenges Trump faces as he runs for president again. Judge Engoron has already ruled that he committed fraud, inflating his wealth as he built his real estate empire, and the trial is about sentencing.
Habba said there were multiple ways to assess property values and prosecutors chose the lowest to argue their case.
‘Just because a bank that gives you a loan says it’s worth what the loan amount is, and that’s what happens when someone takes out a loan, they’ll never say the true value,” she said.
‘They’re going to say what they want to say and not a cent more, or what the loan amount is and not a cent more.
‘It’s not worth it to them to do that. That’s not what they do.
“She needs to educate herself.”
Donald Trump’s lawyer Alina Habba called Judge Arthur Engoron “unhinged” for throwing the table during the former president’s testimony and telling her to sit down
The opening hour of Trump’s testimony on Monday was marked by continued confrontations between the judge, Trump and his legal counsel over the former president’s lengthy answers to questions about his financial statements.
Hours earlier, she stood outside the courtroom and claimed Judge Engoron believed Trump had committed fraud before “we even walked into this courtroom.”
Trump is accused in the $250 million civil fraud trial in New York of inflating his net worth and the value of his properties to secure loans on favorable terms.
During a break in the proceedings, Habba stood outside the courthouse and railed at the judge, describing his face “turning red” as Trump sat in the witness box.
She accused the judge of trying to silence Trump during his answers to questions about his business empire and the value of Mar-a-Lago.
“Why exactly am I being paid as a lawyer and why exactly is taxpayer money being used in this courtroom,” Habba fumed, claiming Judge Engoron had already jumped to conclusions.
She also accused New York Attorney General Letitia James of trying to “make a name for herself” by calling Trump a “liar” and filing the case against him.
Habba then recounted the moment she was berated by Judge Engoron during a tense opening of the former president’s testimony.
“You have the right to hire a lawyer who can stand up and say something if he sees something is wrong,” she said.
“But I was told to sit down today. I was yelled at and had a judge hit a table wildly.
‘I’m not going to tolerate that in my life, I’m not going to tolerate it here. And you know what, you shouldn’t do that either.’
“Why exactly am I being paid as a lawyer and why exactly is taxpayer money being used in this courtroom,” Habba said as she claimed Engoron had already jumped to conclusions
In an impassioned defense of her client, Habba claimed Engoran believed Trump had committed fraud before “we even walked into this courtroom” during a break in the $250 million fraud trial in New York.
The lawyer added, “I see such a downfall of (the) American justice system and democracy.” The judge does not like it when President Trump explains what really happened, because that is not good for his story.’
She said the judge ‘clearly has a problem” and “if you’ve seen his behavior with me, his behavior with the president today, he clearly has a problem with facts that are not good for the case.
‘He (the judge) is clearly furious, his face is red, he’s – he came in hot, and he doesn’t know how to deal with him (Trump).”
Habba spoke shortly after Trump delivered another series of blistering attacks on James and the judge in highly combative testimony.
The irate 77-year-old picked up James, who is sitting in the front row of the court, and accused her of being a “political hack” who brought the case against him to help her in her failed bid to become governor of New York. become.
Trump became animated and audibly frustrated as he attacked James and the judge during confrontations over the property values and fortune he allegedly inflated by billions.
The front-runner in the Republican presidential race also pointed a finger at the judge, slamming him for calling him a “fraud” even though he knew “nothing about me.”
Habba claimed Engoran’s face “turned red” when Trump was in the stands and accused him of trying to silence the 77-year-old former president
The former president sits next to his lawyers Christopher Kise (left) and Alina Habba (right). He was immediately called and sworn in as a witness after criticizing the “political warfare” against him that only takes place “in banana republics”
The front-runner in the Republican presidential race also pointed a finger at Judge Arthur Engoron, slamming him for calling him a “fraud” even though he knew “nothing about me”
Trump told the court: “He (Judge Engoron) said I am a fraud because I did not properly value my property. He’s the one who didn’t manage my property properly.”
The former president also claimed the real fraud was “on behalf of the court” and insisted he is worth “billions of dollars more” than described in the financial statements at the center of the case.
He is accused of inflating his wealth by as much as $6.3 billion in those statements to secure favorable loans.
Confrontations dominated parts of Trump’s testimony as he discussed the value of Mar-a-Lago and refocused on the people who brought the case against him.
He focused on Mar-a-Lago, whose financial statements claimed it was worth more than $500 million, but the court decided it was worth only $18 million.