Trump Lawyer Gives Laughable Excuse Why Writer Couldn’t Have Leaked Audio
Alina Habba continued her ham-fisted attempts at running interference for Donald Trump on Tuesday. This time, she offered a laughable reason why leaked audio of her client claiming to have classified documents could not have come from a person Trump was speaking with.
On Monday, CNN aired a recording from 2021 of Trump talking to a writer working on a memoir by Mark Meadows, who was Trump’s last chief of staff as president. The recording took place at Trump’s Bedminster golf club in New Jersey. Also present were at least two aides to Trump.
“This is off the record, but they presented me this,” Trump says in the recording while the sound of paper being shuffled is heard. Notably, the writer is not heard agreeing to go off the record.
Indeed, the person would not have even had time to respond because Trump continues talking with even pausing.
The former president tells the writer the material is a national security document about Iran. “These are the papers. This was done by the military and given to me.”
He added, “See, as president I could have declassified it. Now I can’t, you know, but this is still a secret.”
The audio is audible confirmation of an allegation in the Department of Justice’s indictment against Trump that describes the exact conversation. He has pleaded not guilty to 37 counts originating with what the DOJ says was his willful retention of classified documents and his efforts to obstruct their retrieval.
Habba, who is not representing Trump in the documents case, appeared on Newsmax with host Carl Schmitt on Tuesday night to offer her “theory” as to why the writer could not have been the source, but instead the Department of Justice:
SCHMITT: They’ve been trying to muzzle the former president on this. They muzzled him on the case and yet, and they continue to leak.
HABBA: Right.
SCHMITT: I mean, I don’t know where else this would’ve come from. Where else would it have? I don’t know. From the reporter that recorded it? I don’t know.
HABBA: It’s impossible. The reporter wouldn’t have. As you heard in the recording, they [sic] said off the record, he said off the record. They wouldn’t do that.
There has to be some evidence that came from the DOJ. Why? Because they’re losing. They’re losing in the polls. They’re losing in the media and they’re losing this case.
The problem with Habba’s assessment is that on the recording, only Trump says, “This is off the record,” before plowing ahead and supposedly showing off the documents and blabbing about them. At no point is the writer heard agreeing to go off the record.
If a source tells a journalist that something is off the record, but the journalist does not agree to those terms, the conversation is not off the record. It is the journalist’s call whether to publish it or not.
Trump responded to the release of the audio not by disputing its authenticity, but by stating that it was “actually an exoneration.” On Tuesday, however, he changed course, claiming the documents he showed the writer weren’t related to Iran at all.
Habba has made the rounds on TV defending Trump, especially in realms that are not her areas of expertise.
Watch above via Newsmax.
