CNN Legal Analyst Tears Apart ‘Bumbling’ Trump Lawyer Habba: ‘Doesn’t Seem to Know the Basic Rules of Evidence’
CNN legal analyst Norm Eisen has not been impressed with Alina Habba, the lawyer representing former President Donald Trump in his defamation trial.
Trump faced a New York judge once again on Wednesday, this time in a federal court, to determine an amount for being found liable of defaming columnist E. Jean Carroll, whom he has also been found liable of sexually abusing. Habba attempted to present a defense that Trump was not the only person slinging defamatory mud at Carroll, citing a five-hour window that occurred between the time Carroll posted her account of being raped by Trump and Trump’s denial of the accusation.
On Thursday, Eisen told CNN anchor John Berman just how weak this defense was:
Berman: Let me first ask you about this line of questioning that E. Jean Carroll is under right now from Trump’s attorneys, is something along the lines of, “other people did it too and first, in terms of saying bad stuff about you, E. Jean Carroll.” Why are the Trump lawyers doing this and is it effective?
Eisen: John, it’s not effective, and the reason it’s not effective is because the Trump lawyers are pointing to an approximately five-hour gap between E. Jean Carroll revealing what Donald Trump did in New York Magazine and Donald Trump claiming it was false. And what Alina Habba, Trump’s lawyer, is trying to do here is to say, “Look, you were attacked in this five-hour period before President Trump said anything. And therefore, you can’t blame President Trump for everything that has transpired since.”
But, John, we’re talking about five hours on the one hand and years of harm that E Jean Carroll very persuasively testified about on the other. And I just don’t think the jury is going to care. The examination has also been marred by considerable, additional bumbling by Trump’s lawyer, Ms. Habba, who doesn’t seem to know the basic rules of evidence on how to use these documents and information. So that is also a negative, when you have a lawyer bumbling in front of a jury.
Watch the video above via CNN.
