Michael Steele Claims Trump Lawyer Alina Habba Didn’t Know ‘Her Mission’ in ‘Performative’ Defense
MSNBC’s Michael Steele slammed Alina Habba for her “performative” defense of former President Donald Trump, claiming she didn’t understand “her mission” in the case.
Habba served as Trump’s lead attorney in the awards portion of his second defamation trial brought by the writer E. Jean Carroll. On Friday, after a five-day trial, the jury awarded Carroll $83.3 million.
“I recall a comment that she made at one point where she was asked, would you rather be pretty or smart,” Steele said of Habba. “And her response was, ‘I would rather be pretty because I can fake being smart.’ So, the reality of it is that you need to be smart in the courtroom. You need to understand her reaction a lot of times…went to the drama, it was performative, it was to appease Trump. It was not to deal with the facts that were at hand.
“First off, this was not a case where you are trying to prevent him from being judged a sexual predator. They had already taken place. This is about something very different. She seemed to be out of sorts with what her mission was, and actually wound up costing her client I think an incredible amount of money.”
Former FBI official Chuck Rosenberg agreed with Steele’s assessment.
“I think ‘performative,’ Michael, is a good word. Federal court is very staid, serious, formal place. It’s rules and procedures —performative doesn’t tend to work. It doesn’t work. And if it’s more clear that it doesn’t work when you don’t have any good facts at your disposal. And so, perhaps a lawyer — I don’t know this particular one — has nothing left to do but sort of do the drama, make a lot of noise. At the end of the day, though, the facts control, as you know. Wasn’t it Shakespeare who had Cassius tell Brutus, ‘The fault lies not in our stars but in ourselves.'”
Habba sparred with Judge Lewis Kaplan repeatedly throughout the trial. At one point, the judge threatened to send Habba to jail over her interruptions.
The Federal Elections Commission reported that two Trump PACs have paid Habba’s firm $3.5 million.
Trump said he plans to appeal.
