Jake Tapper Cuts Away from Alina Habba Tirade Outside Courthouse, Calls Her ‘Not Particularly Effective’ as a Lawyer

CNN anchor Jake Tapper interrupted remarks by former President Donald Trump’s attorney Alina Habba after a jury awarded E. Jean Carroll $83.3 million in damages.

On Friday evening, a jury found that the Republican frontrunner was liable for $83.3 million in damages for defaming Carroll. Habba reacted to the jury’s decision outside the courthouse during a press conference by condemning Judge Lewis Kaplan and vowing to appeal the case. However, the CNN anchor cut away from Habba’s remarks to critique her effectiveness as an attorney.

HABBA: And that is why so many Americans are so proud that he is running again, and so excited to run to the ballot box. But don’t get it twisted. We are seeing a violation of our justice system. Ladies and gentlemen, you are not allowed to be stripped of every defense that you have. You are not allowed–

[CNN cuts away]

TAPPER: Alright, so you’re getting an idea now about why Donald Trump’s attorney is perceived as effective as she is, which is not particularly effective. Laura Coates, if you could truth-spot a little bit of this, Alina Habba was saying that Donald Trump was not allowed to introduce, defenses. What is she talking about?

Coates responded to Tapper by noting that Habba’s defense of Trump was “nonsense” and that the attorney’s claims against Carroll may open herself up to “accusations that she has made defamatory statements.”

COATES: She’s talking about nonsense and she’s trying to rewrite history. And I honestly would not be surprised if she herself is now vulnerable to accusations that she has made defamatory statements of some kind without proof to the contrary. But let me tell you, he did have an opportunity, Jake. This was the damages phase of a trial that he could have attended last year. His presence was voluntary in the sense of whether he was required to actually sit in the trial, but his defense was not voluntary. He had every opportunity, essentially, to put forth evidence, to put up a defense, to testify himself, to do all the things that she spoke of on that courthouse step just now. They made it a decision that was different from that.

Now, you had the penalty phase of a trial, and the judge specifically told them, here are the parameters. We’re not re-litigating this issue. A jury has already decided the issue that you could have participated fully in. And for that reason, you are limited in trying to have a second bite at the apple. Even in the Big Apple. That was the clear directive from the judge. And so to suggest somehow that it is New York or the jury system, or somehow something nefarious was going on that muzzled the defense in the way that they chose to actually defend the case is truly ludicrous.

Last May, a New York jury found Trump liable for sexually assaulting Carroll in a department store back in the 1990s and awarded her $5 million in damages. The recent trial awarded Carroll $7.3 million in compensatory damages, $11 million in reputational repair, and $65 million in punitive damages.

Watch the clip above via CNN.